PRAYER (ASCETIC). - I. DEFINITION. - An intimate converse of the soul with God and the saints, or a pious elevation of the mind to God (St. John Damascene, De Fide, III, 24: PG 94, 1090). It can be mental or vocal. Although in Latin "oratio" denotes both, the distinction between "orazione" and "preghiera" (v.) has by now become established among the French and Italians. The former is commonly reserved to signify the various forms of mental elevation, the latter for vocal ones (in particular those of petition), although there is no lack of authors who still follow the classical usage, according to which "orazione" embraces all the forms of intimate communication of the soul with God. Since the natural mode of communication proper to man is speech, "orazione" is sometimes also called "a conversation" with God ("oratio est conversatio sermocinatioque cum Deo": St. Gregory of Nyssa, De orat. dom., Orat. I: PG 44, 1125). St. Paul enumerates various modes of "orazione": petitions δεύσεις; praises προσθυμεί; deprecations ἐντεύξεις; thanksgivings εὐχαρισνίαι (I Tim. 2, 1). In Sacred Scripture there is ordinarily question of impetratory or petitionary "orazione" (Ps. 4, 2; 16, 1; 38, 13), which God grants (Mt. 7, 7; Lc. 11, 5-13; Io. 16, 24). St. John Damascene defines "orazione" as petitio decentium a Deo (De Fide, loc. cit.): cf. St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 2a-2ae, q. 83, a. 1).
"Orazione" is an act belonging to the virtue of religion, because it is an implicit acknowledgment of all the attributes of God, particularly of His goodness and power and of the creature's dependence on Him. "Orazione", especially of petition, is the common and ordinary means for attaining the justification of adults (S. Schiffini, De Gratia, n. 315); no other is more easily within the reach of all, just or sinners, faithful or unbelievers, for imploring the graces necessary for salvation. Therefore Leo XIII exhorted not only Catholics but also Protestants to "orazione" in order to obtain the unity of the Faith (Acta Leonis XIII, VI, p. 36 ff.). The supernatural dignity of one member of the Church redounds in a certain way upon the others, so that the holiest souls have greater efficacy in their "orazioni" on behalf of their neighbor (Prümmer, Theol. mor., I, n. 340). In order for them to be salutary they require the help of Grace and must proceed from Faith and theological Hope (Rom. 10, 14; Iac. 1, 6). The Holy Spirit helps souls to pray, especially in cases of graces particularly necessary for the fulfillment of God's hidden designs for the government of souls and of the world (R. Cornely, In Rom. 8, 26).
II. MEDITATIVE AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
Mental prayer, which can be methodical-discursive (v. MEDITATION) and contemplative (v. CONTEMPLATION), has a broader extent than purely vocal prayer. To it belong affective prayer of simplicity, of recollection, of the simple gaze, of quiet, of union,
Affective is, by its nature, every prayer. For before prayer the soul should prepare itself by thinking of God with whom it is about to speak; therefore a sentiment of recollection in the presence of the Lord and of fervor is necessary, that is, of humility and dedication, whereby the heart and all the powers may be united to seek God present and to do what he inspires. Since conversing with God is essential to prayer, prayer should begin with a stripping away of any other thought, in order to seek him purely. Moreover, in prayer the soul must above all seek the will of God in order to adhere to it with all its affection; indeed it should come to feel the will of God within itself and to savor it. For God is accustomed to draw the created will in such a way that the soul adheres to him. In the total desire to unite itself to God, to abandon itself in him and to savor the divine will, the soul passes easily to elevation in God (B. de Canfield, La Règle de perfection, II, 1, pp. 199-200). Therefore spiritual masters advise that prayer pass to the affections. When the soul already has a constant practice of prayer, it should dwell predominantly in such acts toward God, that is, in expressions of faith, of praise, of adoration, of admiration, of gratitude, of hope, of contrition, and above all of love. St. Ignatius too recommends that one not be in a hurry to go forward in prayer, but rather stop there where one finds devotion "for it is not abundance of knowledge that satisfies the soul, but the savoring of things internally" (Exerc. spir. adnot., 2).
Such prayer, in which the affections predominate, has been called affective prayer. In it the work of the mind diminishes, though it is not suppressed. It does not yet exclude discursive action, but the intuition of truth largely replaces it. Affective prayer has particular advantages. For the difficulty of practicing the virtues usually arises, more than from a defect of knowledge, from a lack of faith, of hope and of love, and from the fact that the will is languid. Now the repetition of affections, that is, of acts of will and of desire, activates and invigorates the spiritual life; this holds especially when one utters frequent imitative affections, that is, desires to practice the virtues that one admires in God, in Jesus, in the saints. Moreover, union with God, which makes a man holy, is above all a union of will; and therefore a method of prayer in which the acts of the will are more numerous leads more rapidly to perfection.
Affective prayer, however, is not to be advised immediately to beginners, since in order to produce good fruits the person who devotes himself to it should already be well instructed in the faith, in the duties of the spiritual life, and should have strong convictions and a wholly supernatural mentality; only then is it possible that, without much reasoning, he may have present in his spirit those principles that must regulate the affections. For beginners it is better to begin with meditation; when, however, they have a mind sufficiently nourished with good thoughts, it is good that they rest in the truths they already possess, giving free rein to the affections. In Sacred Scripture there are many examples of affective vocal prayer; both of souls tried by spiritual desolation, as in the prayer of Tobit (Tob. 3, 1-6), of Sarah (ibid. 3, 13-23), of Christ in Gethsemane (Mt. 26, 39-42; Lk. 22, 42 etc.); and of others in moments of joy and exultation, as in the canticle of Moses (Ex. 15, 1-8), in the prayer of Solomon (I Kings 8, 23-26), of Azariah (Dan. 3, 26-45), of the three young men in the furnace (ibid. 3, 52-90). Many Psalms contain affections for other situations of spirit (Ps. 50, 102, 118, 127, 135, 148 etc.).
III. PRAYER OF SIMPLICITY
Just as affective prayer is ordinary prayer simplified in the operations of the intellect, so the prayer of simplicity is prayer simplified also in the affections. While these abound greatly in affective prayer, and are ordinarily of great variety, in the prayer of simplicity the affections are reduced to a few. One finds relish and devotion, remaining in the same act and repeating it for a long time, so that there are many distinct acts, but the affections are not varied: thus St. Francis of Assisi spent an entire night repeating "Deus meus et omnia." The prolonged repetition of the same affection conforms to psychological laws, and occurs easily when one is seized by a strong passion. Finally the expressions too cease and give place to simple aspirations of the heart. Thus mothers who love their children sometimes renew for hours the same acts of maternal complacency. In a further process of simplification the soul, besides simplifying concepts and affections, proceeds to simplify the object as well, that is, it tends to fix itself on a single point or spiritual subject. Some saints, after some years of prayer, settled almost exclusively on the Passion of Christ, others on the Eucharist, or on the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity, etc. Such concentration has the advantage of giving greater actuality to all the intellectual and affective energies. Souls greatly advanced in the interior ways and nourished on good thoughts love to rest in the truths they already possess. P. Lancizio in his little work De causis et remediis ariditatis in oratione (chaps. 2 and 14), suggests repeating many times the same ejaculation, or different ejaculations in a certain order. Such simplicity of affections is found in the majority of the saints. St. Philip Neri was most familiar with the ejaculation: Virgin Mother of God, pray Jesus for me, which he used to repeat while continually carrying the rosary in his hand. Similarly St. Joseph B. Cottolengo prayed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, obtain saints for us! St. Francis Xavier, dying, said without ceasing: Jesu, fili David, miserere mei. St. John Baptist de la Salle observes that this progressive simplification of the soul is a normal fact, that "conversations by multiplied discourses and reasonings suit beginners; rarer reflections continued at length, the proficient; and simple attention, the advanced" (Explicitation de la méthode d'oraison, p. 11, chap. 1, § 1). St. John of the Cross observes, with regard to the passage from meditation to contemplation, that the Lord leads souls not only to be unable to meditate any longer, but almost to be silent, secretly and tranquilly spreading in the soul wisdom and light, without its making any longer many distinct acts, formulated or reiterated (Fiamma viva, str. 3, vers. 3, §§ 5, 6). St. Peter of Alcantara too recommends not only speaking, but listening to God (Trattato, d'o. e meditazione, avviso 11). In this way one arrives at the prayer of recollection of simple gaze and of union.
IV. PRAYER OF RECOLLECTION
Although the terminology and classification are not always uniform, by prayer of recollection one commonly means that form of prayer in which the soul is concentrated and is penetrated by the intimate feeling of the presence of God, which it savors with acts of love; theologians debate whether it is of acquired or infused nature. When this knowledge is experimental and perceived in the ineffable manner described by the mystics, one is certainly in the first degrees of the mystical life. This, in fact, according to the expression of the Ven. John of St. Samson, taken in its essence, is nothing other than God ineffably perceived (Maximes, I, Paris 1658, ch. 21). From the prayer of recollection one easily passes to that of epiete, which, as the name indicates, is a kind of rest of the soul in God. All discourse or reasoning ceases; the soul holds itself before him and sweetly savors being in him, loved by him. This is certainly of the mystical order (G. B. Scaramelli, Direttorio mistico, treat. 3, nos. 26-32). The soul experiences this rest and this interior sweetness not simply because it believes in the presence of God, but because it savors it and feels it intimately through the very love of God present in it (J. Nouet, La conduite de l'homme d'oraison, I, IV, ch. 6).
V. PRAYER OF THE SIMPLE GAZE
This too can be either acquired or infused. In the first case it is the fruit of a long life of prayer, whereby the soul, now tested and full of supernatural wisdom, no longer dwells on reasonings but simply rests with its mind in the truth. Sometimes its attention is turned to God present and loving, and it rests there, adhering to him with a prolonged act of silent love. Much more often, however, this prayer is passive and mystical. The metaphor of the "gaze" is drawn from the analogy with what happens in sensory sight, when a man rests in the simple contemplation of some beauty present to him and known to him.
VI. PRAYER OF UNION
The prayer of union in the ascetical sense is that form of simple and profound prayer in which the soul, without multiplying its affections, cleaves to God with an intimate, prolonged embrace of love; in the mystical sense, besides being an effect of a special act of God, received passively and felt experimentally through so-called mystical experience, it is a suspension of the exercise of the powers of the soul, which are all simultaneously occupied in God and incapable of anything else. The spirit at that moment is totally and absolutely estranged from all the things of the world, and is entirely immersed in God. The passage to ecstasy (v.) is merely a question of greater intensity (St. Teresa, Castello, 5, chaps. 1 and 2); full union is inferior in its effects to ecstasy, in which the soul is ordinarily enriched with extraordinary visions, whether of God, the Most Holy Trinity, and His attributes (St. John of the Cross, Salita, I, II, chap. 26), or of divine secrets (St. Teresa, Castello, 6, chaps. 4-5-10); and with a particular illumination and enlightenment of the intellect (St. Ignatius of Loyola, Vita scritta dal Ribadeneira, I, I, chap. 6). On transforming union and the other degrees of infused prayer: v. MISTICA.
Bibliography16 works
Arnaldo M. Lanz
VII. CONSOLATIONS AND ARIDITY
The crowning of the salutary influence of Grace, during our earthly existence, is the operation by which God nourishes the supernatural love that sanctifying Grace causes to spring spontaneously from the faithful heart: the divine goldsmith blows upon the furnace after having lit it (Wis. 3:6). This direct concurrence, or inspiration of Grace, corresponds to the promised mission of the Spirit Consoler (Jn. 14:26). Authentic spiritual consolation is, in various ways and degrees, a notable intensification of this action, in a passive accentuation, normally transitory, of the soul's fervor (Lk. 24:32): a favor usually experienced at intervals by devout souls, whether already proven or still beginners, each according to its own dispositions. Consolation is among the first effects of worthily received Eucharist. At times it offers itself as the sweetness of God (1 Pt. 2:2-3), an experience of His Goodness that relieves moral weariness (Mt. 11:28), pacifies the heart, renews the inner man (2 Cor. 4:16); at other times it arises as a sudden flame of divine love, which at the moment no longer permits one to love anything other than God (Ps. 72:23-28), or a vivid light of faith (Eph. 1:17-19), a jubilation of the heart that accelerates holy activity (Ps. 118:32), or a kind of spiritual intoxication that pours itself out in divine praises (Eph. 5:18-19), such as the Magnificat.
This converting influence is substantially produced by a form of God's presence superimposed upon that by which God places us in existence and raises us to sanctifying Grace (St. John of the Cross, Canticle B, stanza 11): it is a polarizing action, analogous to that of the sun upon a flower, which awakens, attracts, suspends the heart in God. The deepest consolation does not manifest itself only in a sweet emotion of the will, but also allows this loving presence of God to shine through more or less; so that the faithful soul then realizes it is not alone.
This divine action is called "consolation" also because it constitutes a first compensation for the removal of earthly joys, for anxiety about salvation, for the struggle sustained against concupiscence, the worldly and the devil. It is also called a "visit" because by its nature it is not permanent, like "indwelling."
Consolation adapts itself to the state of the soul that enjoys it. When the soul still deals with God on the sensible plane of the spiritual life, consolation manifests itself in the sensible part, for which reason it is doubly subject to change: because on sensible ground euphoria is necessarily passing, and is usually followed by a phase of prostration of the nervous "tone" to which Grace adapts its action. In perfect contemplative union, consolation is represented by the times of total or "qualified" union, during which the enjoyment of God, which usually prolongs itself almost in a low key in the depths of the soul, surfaces in the interior faculties in the manner of a heavenly festivity (St. Augustine, Enarratio in Ps., 41, n. 9).
The creature can often be a secondary or occasional cause of divine consolation. One distinguishes angelic consolations from others that are entirely natural; even the devil can produce analogous states, the better to deceive the soul.
Spiritual masters recommend keeping the soul in such a state as to be able to receive consolation without fixing attention or affection upon it, but taking advantage of it to increase substantial devotion, that which the fervent soul always seeks, whether the visits of Grace multiply or grow sparse (De Imitat. Christi, IV, ch. 15).
Desolation is opposed to consolation as a contrary state of mind, marking a phase of painful affective isolation, of interior storm and of temptations. Aridity is simply the wasting away of the consoling action: the fertilizing clouds of sensible devotion have evaporated and the intimate impression answers to the words of the Psalmist: "In a desert land, parched and without water, so in the sanctuary I presented myself to You" (Ps. 62:2).
In this affective torpor, the functioning of the interior sensible powers (indispensable, in discursive prayer, for the mental elaboration of salutary considerations and for the blossoming of the spiritual sentiments by which devotion is then nourished) becomes heavy, difficult, even impossible; the soul suffers from this sterility, like the roots of a plant during drought. Aridity, compared to the absence of rain, is therefore a superficial phenomenon in the spiritual life: it chiefly affects beginners, still "carnal," that is, susceptible to being moved by sensible impressions, whom Scripture compares to grass (1 Pt. 1:24). Advanced souls, "spiritual," rooted in depth, no longer depend on the sensible and drink of a devotion that comes from within, through a secret, permanent, inexhaustible infusion. The "tree planted by the water" defies seasonal droughts (Ps. 1:3).
Aridity can often be interpreted as a paternal correction from God, a repercussion of dissipation: it can also be determined by psychic depression. It also happens that it is maintained by the heavenly Gardener (1 Cor. 3:9) for the soul's benefit, to make it produce better fruit: rain benefits the vineyard in April, but no longer in June. Aridity harmonizes, in certain souls, with the thirst for God and quickens invocation. When it becomes permanent, despite spiritual fervor, it is one of the indicators of the opening of the contemplative state. V. PURIFICAZIONI PASSIVE.
The direction to be given with regard to aridity will therefore differ according to the case; it will recommend a more rigorous mortification, a more assiduous prayer, or rather psychic relaxation, serene and trusting patience, purer joy in a deeper recollection.
Bibliography2 works
Michele Ledrus