Читать книгу The Practice of Mental Prayer - Father Rene de Maumigny - Страница 21

EXCELLENCE OF MENTAL PRAYER

itual darkness; but when the soul applies itself to this holy exercise, the Holy Ghost enlightens it and reveals to it even its smallest defect.

In most cases God, Who in His providence arranges all with a gentle force, proportions this light to the strength which He infuses into the soul, and only discloses to it the fault which it can correct. Sometimes, how- ever, many more defects are disclosed than the soul can root out. God's object in this case is to humiliate the soul by showing it its weakness, so as to exalt it later, in accordance with St. Peter's thought: ''Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation." ¹

But whatever the method by which God enlightens the soul as it prays, sooner or later He will certainly disclose to it all its faults, so that the soul, strengthened and encouraged, may finally succeed in destroy- ing them. Where are the helps, indispens- able in such a difficult task, to be found? Once more, in prayer; for it is only in prayer that the Holy Ghost shows the soul the ineffable value of a union of love with God and fills the heart with the desire of

¹ Pet. 5:6.