COLLECTION. – An ascetical exercise proper to the interior life, analogous to the isolation of the scholar who concentrates his attention and thought on the meditation of a single idea. St. Teresa compares it to the withdrawal of the tortoise into its shell.
In collection, the mental faculties turn away from objects toward which a corrupted nature impels them with immoderate force. “When you pray, go into your inner room, and shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mt. 6:6). The stilling of the soul in collection corresponds to a spiritual awakening. By virtue 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 fantasy, and turns toward the substantial “center” of being, where the mysterious source of divine communications wells forth. Collection therefore differs from psychological introspection, in which man directs a speculative attention upon himself. Collected attention, instead, leads one out of oneself, makes the soul “transcend” itself, in order to “remember,” with eyes closed—that is, in faith—“the other” absolute, benignly brought near (cf. St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 41, no. 8; Epist., 120, no. 4, etc.). Collection, as an affective phenomenon, also differs, strictly speaking, from the suspension of rest of the faculties, which is the effect of prayer following their passive satisfaction, not always conjoined with collection.
The prayer called “of collection” is that in which the aforementioned intimate concentration of the faculties becomes, whether on the semi-sensory level or on the spiritual level, the occupation (active or passive) of the soul. The theological value of authentic ascetical collection lies precisely in the “obedience of faith,” which opens the soul to the influence of the salutary light, to the “spiritual recollection” of the word of God (Rom. 1:5; Jn. 14:26; St. Ignatius, Exerc. Spir., no. 20; St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. 2, ch. 29, no. 6). Perfect collection does not usually hinder the external employment of the mental faculties in the service of God.