Untitled - Saints' Books

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Necessity of Mental Prayer. 465
sary that we apply ourselves to mental prayer, and
much mental prayer; not a quarter, or half an hour in
passing, but much more, much more; otherwise it will,
morally speaking, be impossible for us to become saints.
In the midst of our greatest labors we must always
find time to give a little rest to our soul, as Jesus Christ
has enjoined upon the Apostles: Rest a little. 1 In retreat
and in mental prayer the soul sits down, as it were, and
takes rest, and gathers new strength to work better.
He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace, because he hath
taken it
upon himself? When a soul comes forth from
mental prayer
it is quite changed. Hence I think
highly of the good practice
of those that reserve for
themselves every week a day of retreat, a day entirely
consecrated to the repose of the soul. On this day we
do not hear confessions, we do not study: we apply
only to mental prayer, to spiritual reading, to holy
solitude. There are religious institutes that allow every
week a day of recreation for the body, in order that the
body may have more strength to work, and be better
able to resist fatigue. Why should we not also give to
the soul a day of spiritual recreation, so that it may be
better able to bear the fatigue, considering that in ex
terior works it becomes always a little dissipated ?
Yes, I repeat, we stand much in need of mental
prayer, of not a quarter of an hour, nor half an hour,
but much more. Show me an apostolic laborer who
has sanctified himself without much mental prayer; as
for myself,
I can find none. I see that St. Francis
Xavier, the wonder of apostolic workers, spent most of the
night in the churches to make mental prayer, and that
after a short rest which he took in the sacristy he went
to pour out the affections of his heart before the Blessed
Sacrament, where the Lord so filled him with his con-
1 "
Requiescite pnsillum." Mark, vi. 31.
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2
Scdebit solitarius, et tacebit, quia levavit super se.
Lam. Hi. 28.