RECOLLECTION. - An ascetical exercise proper to the interior life, analogous to the isolation of the scholar who concentrates his attention and his thought in the meditation of a single idea. St. Teresa compares it to the withdrawing of the turtle into its shell.
In recollection the mental faculties flee from the objects toward which corrupted nature carries them with immoderate impulse. "When you want to pray, enter into your inner room, and, having barred your door, pray to your Father who is hidden, and your Father, who, hidden, watches, will repay you" (Mt. 6,
6). The drowsiness of the recollected soul corresponds to a spiritual awakening. Through the effect of the vital interest that man begins to feel for God himself, the attention of the heart gradually detaches itself from the external world, from that of the imagination, moving toward the substantial "center" of being, where the mysterious source of divine communications springs forth. Recollection therefore differs from psychological introversion, by which man directs a speculative attention toward himself. Recollected attention, on the other hand, makes one go out of oneself, makes one "surpass" one's own soul, in order to "remember" with closed eyes, that is, in faith, "the other" absolute benignly brought near (cf. St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps., 41, n. 8; Epist., 120, n. 4, etc.). Recollection, an affective phenomenon, differs also, strictly speaking, from the suspension or rest of the faculties, an effect of prayer consecutive to their passive fulfillment, not always joined with recollection.
The prayer called that of recollection is the one in which the aforementioned intimate magnetizing of the faculties becomes, both on the sensitive plane and on the spiritual plane, the "occupation" (active or passive) of the soul. The theological value of authentic ascetical recollection is precisely that of the "obedience of faith," which opens the soul to the infusion of saving light, to the spiritual "reminiscence" of the word of God (Rom. 1, 5; Io. 14, 26; St. Ignatius, Exerc. sp., n. 20; St. John of the Cross, Salita M. C., I. II, cap. 29, n. 6). Perfect recollection does not usually hinder the external employment of the mental faculties in the service of God.
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Michele Ledrus