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| Chapter XI. Of the perfection of prayer to which we can rise by the system described.
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Chapter XI.
Of the perfection of prayer to which we can rise by the
system described.
This, this is the formula
which the mind should unceasingly cling to until, strengthened by the
constant use of it and by continual meditation, it casts off and
rejects the rich and full material of all manner of thoughts and
restricts itself to the poverty of this one verse, and so arrives with
ready ease at that beatitude of the gospel, which holds the first place
among the other beatitudes: for He says “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”1676
And so one who becomes grandly poor by a
poverty of this sort will fulfil this saying of the prophet: “The
poor and needy shall praise the name of the Lord.”1677
And indeed what greater or holier
poverty can there be than that of one who knowing that he has no
defence and no strength of his own, asks for daily help from
another’s bounty, and as he is aware that every single moment his
life and substance depend on Divine assistance, professes himself not
without reason the Lord’s bedesman, and cries to Him daily in
prayer: “But I am poor and needy: the Lord helpeth
me.”1678
And so by the
illumination of God Himself he mounts to that manifold knowledge of Him
and begins henceforward to be nourished on sublimer and still more
sacred mysteries, in accordance with these words of the prophet:
“The high hills are a refuge for the stags, the rocks for
the
hedgehogs,”1679
which is very fairly applied in the
sense we have given, because whosoever continues in simplicity and
innocence is not injurious or offensive to any one, but being content
with his own simple condition endeavours simply to defend himself from
being spoiled by his foes, and becomes a sort of spiritual hedgehog and
is protected by the continual shield of that rock of the gospel, i.e.,
being sheltered by the recollection of the Lord’s passion and by
ceaseless meditation on the verse given above he escapes the snares of
his opposing enemies. And of these spiritual hedgehogs we read in
Proverbs as follows: “And the hedgehogs are a feeble folk, who
have made their homes in the rocks.”1680
And indeed what is feebler than a Christian, what is weaker than a
monk, who is not only not permitted any vengeance for wrongs done to
him but is actually not allowed to suffer even a slight and silent
feeling of irritation to spring up within? But whoever advances from
this condition and not only secures the simplicity of innocence, but is
also shielded by the virtue of discretion, becomes an exterminator of
deadly serpents, and has Satan crushed beneath his feet, and by his
quickness of mind answers to the figure of the reasonable stag, this
man will feed on the mountains of the prophets and Apostles, i.e., on
their highest and loftiest mysteries. And thriving on this pasture
continually, he will take in to himself all the thoughts of the Psalms
and will begin to sing them in such a way that he will utter them with
the deepest emotion of heart not as if they were the compositions of
the Psalmist, but rather as if they were his own utterances and his
very own prayer; and will certainly take them as aimed at himself, and
will recognize that their words were not only fulfilled formerly by or
in the person of the prophet, but that they are fulfilled and carried
out daily in his own case. For then the Holy Scriptures lie open to us
with greater clearness and as it were their very veins and marrow are
exposed, when our experience not only perceives but actually
anticipates their meaning, and the sense of the words is revealed to us
not by an exposition of them but by practical proof. For if we have
experience of the very state of mind in which each Psalm was sung and
written, we become like their authors and anticipate the meaning rather
than follow it, i.e., gathering the force of the words before we really
know them, we remember what has happened to us, and what is happening
in daily assaults when the thoughts of them come over us, and while we
sing them we call to mind all that our carelessness has brought upon
us, or our earnestness has secured, or Divine Providence has granted or
the promptings of the foe have deprived us of, or slippery and subtle
forgetfulness has carried off, or human weakness has brought about, or
thoughtless ignorance has cheated us of. For all these feelings we find
expressed in the Psalms so that by seeing whatever happens as in a very
clear mirror we understand it better, and so instructed by our feelings
as our teachers we lay hold of it as something not merely heard but
actually seen, and, as if it were not committed to memory, but
implanted in the very nature of things, we are affected from the very
bottom of the heart, so that we get at its meaning not by reading the
text but by experience anticipating it. And so our mind will reach that
incorruptible prayer to which in our former treatise, as the Lord
vouchsafed to grant, the scheme of our Conference mounted, and this is
not merely not engaged in gazing on any image, but is actually
distinguished by the use of no words or utterances; but with the
purpose of the mind all on fire, is produced through ecstasy of heart
by some unaccountable keenness of spirit, and the mind being thus
affected without the aid of the senses or any visible material pours it
forth to God with groanings and sighs that cannot be
uttered.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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