To complete our remarks on active prayer and explain more fully what is the remote preparation for prayer it is necessary to deal with active purgation or purification. This means nothing more or less than the self -denial which ought to be practised by a soul which desires to advance in prayer , but especially by a contemplative soul. It is but striving to practise in a perfect degree that penance without which , our Saviour assures us , we must perish, that hatred of ourselves without which we cannot be His true disciples.
This purification is necessary to secure that peace of soul so necessary for the spirit of prayer. It means a detachment from all that is not God. It consists in the perfect mortification of all unruly desires or inclinations. It does not necessarily embrace austerities except in so far as some of these, like fasting and abstinence, may be prescribed by the law of the Church or by our rule, to help us in this purification. But the purification must extend to all the powers of our soul. The exterior senses must be brought under control. The sight and the hearing must be restrained not merely from what is sinful but from all that serves only to pander to curiosity. There is usually not so much difficulty about the smell , but in exercising it , as in using the taste and the touch we must endeavor to be led by the dictates of reason alone. In a word, the exercise of the exterior senses must be made subject to reason.
沒有留言:
張貼留言