Читать книгу The Practice of Mental Prayer - Father Rene de Maumigny - Страница 46

PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

familiarity nor tender and affectionate inter- course dispenses a son from respecting the author of his being.

God exacts this homage from us when He tells us: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and Him only shalt thou serve."¹ And again: The son honoreth his father; if then I be a father, where is my honor?" ²

There is certainly a difference between adoring God and humbling ourselves before Him, the reason which bends us before His all powerful Majesty not being the same in both cases. In adoring God we confess our absolute dependence as the result of His infinite perfections, whilst in humbling ourselves before Him we make confession of our lowliness.

In prayer, however, there is practically no difference between adoration and self- humiliation, since in neither case do we separate the idea of God*s infinite Majesty from that of our extreme lowliness, but we attribute our absolute dependence to these two causes combined. Again, those Saints who have treated of prayer in their writings, when they speak of the necessity of adora-

¹ Matth. 4: 10. ² Mal. 1: 6.