Читать книгу The Practice of Mental Prayer - Father Rene de Maumigny - Страница 16

PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

With regard to merit, prayer is a kind of holocaust by which he who prays offers himself without reserve as a victim to the divine Majesty.

In prayer an offering is made to God of the imagination, by restraining it from spreading itself on things profane; of the memory and intellect, by using them solely for what concerns God and His glory: of the will, by allowing it to interest itself only in the praise and service of God. Not even the senses and the members of the body are without their immolation. The eyes are consecrated to Him by keeping them mod- estly lowered; the ears, by closing them to all external sounds; the whole body, by keeping it in a respectful posture.

Prayer, then, is not a partial, but a total sacrifice, and is therefore meritorious in the extreme, especially in moments of dryness of spirit, when God hides Himself and when nature feels strongly impelled towards creatures.

In the second place, meditation is a source of merit on account of the interior acts which it causes us to make. These acts, indeed, are more perfect in themselves than exterior