The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experiencerespectfully and lovingly with him, and fills us with desire and affectionfor him… . Would you escape from every ill? Never lose thisrecollection of God, neither in prosperity nor in adversity, nor on anyoccasion whichsoever it be. Invoke not, to excuse yourself from thisduty, either the difficulty or the importance of your business, for youcan always remember that God sees you, that you are under his eye. Ifa thousand times an hour you forget him, reanimate a thousand timesthe recollection.If you cannot practice this exercise continuously, at least makeyourself as familiar with it as possible; and, like unto those who in arigorous winter draw near the fire as often as they can, go as often asyou can to that ardent fire which will warm your soul.”62All the external associations of the Catholic discipline are of courseunlike anything in mind-cure thought, but the purely spiritual partof the exercise is identical in both communions, and in both communionsthose who urge it write with authority, for they have evidentlyexperienced in their own persons that whereof they tell. Compareagain some mind-cure utterances:—“High, healthful, pure thinking can be encouraged, promoted,and strengthened. Its current can be turned upon grand ideals untilit forms a habit and wears a channel. By means of such disciplinethe mental horizon can be flooded with the sunshine of beauty,wholeness, and harmony. To inaugurate pure and lofty thinkingmay at first seem difficult, even almost mechanical, but perseverancewill at length render it easy, then pleasant, and finally delightful.“The soul’s real world is that which it has built of its thoughts,mental states, and imaginations. If we will, we can turn our backsupon the lower and sensuous plane, and lift ourselves into the realmof the spiritual and Real, and there gain a residence. The assumptionof states of expectancy and receptivity will attract spiritual sunshine,and it will flow in as naturally as air inclines to a vacuum… .Whenever the though; is not occupied with one’s daily duty or profession,it should he sent aloft into the spiritual atmosphere. Thereare quiet leisure moments by day, and wakeful hours at night, when62 Quoted by Lejeune: Introd. a la vie Mystique, 1899, p. 66.110