+JMJ+ Greetings, y’all! During May I’ll be posting posts about our Blessed Mother. May is her month, after all. One of the books I’m reading right now is Mary in Our Life by Fr. William Most. The sections I’m focusing on right now are about 1) her title as Co-Redemptrix, and 2) the hyperdulia that she is owed and why. I found this recently and just begun reading it but I can already tell it’s an important book. If you’ve been following things happening in the Church, then you’ll know why.

Since I just started reading this, I’m not ready to share much about it yet. I think I’ll take some of this, maybe one point at a time, to mental prayer before I try to write about it. So this post is more of a post about a post, a promise of a post, that I’ll be posting next Wednesday and through May.

And if you don’t mind, keep Miss Kitty and me in your prayers. We’re supposed to have some strong storms beginning in a few minutes, with a tornado watch and possible hail, too. Argh! Now if I can get her to come inside. She loves to sit on the deck while it rains but she’s not a big fan of thunderboomers. Me, either. 

Thank you for visiting and reading. Christ is risen, alleluia! May we be not afraid to ask our Blessed Mother to help us to become saints! God bless you and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

Notes and Links

• Mary In Our Life, by Fr. William Most: Hardcover, Paperback, published by Literary Licensing, LLC; or this Paperback with a pretty cover, published by Angelus Press (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below).
• Mary In Our Life, by Fr. William Most: direct from Angelus Press, Paperback or ebook. I think it you can get Kindle, Nook, and Apple Books (formerly iBooks) versions. 

Images: Virgin of Humility, by Fra Angelico, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. In the Rosary banner, An angel comforting Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, by Carl Bloch, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

+JMJ+ I’m continuing to re-read I Want to See God, by Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus OCD, and another Carmelite classic by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene OCD. Today I want to focus on that second book, especially what Fr. Gabriel has to say about mental prayer and some tips on how to do it. About time, eh, what? Links in the notes at the end of the post. (Read other posts in the series.)

These are some suggestions for a “method” or a bit of structure for our mental prayer session. They’re not “rules” so much as a genuine way to help us proceed. Without something like this I feel lost, to be honest. And I remember reading that St. Teresa had to have a book to begin with, even if she didn’t open the whole time she was praying. She just needed to have it to hand. I understand that perfectly. 

So here is a way to proceed. Note that I said “a way” and not “the way.” But it is a pretty good way.

• Put yourself in the presence of God.
• Choose a subject of meditation, a passage to read.
• Reflect, meditate, on the reading.
• In your own words tell the Lord that you want to love Him, to do His will. 

If you want to go further, then Fr. Gabriel proposes three optional steps.

• Thanksgiving: thank Him for all you have received.
• Offering: Make some good resolution to show you are serious, that you are grateful,  something simple but concrete, neither vague nor grandiose.
• Petition: “The consciousness of our weakness and frailty urges us to implore the help of God.”

That’s the Teresian method in a nutshell. Seven steps. 

• 2 Introductory steps: preparation (presence of God) and reading.
• 2 Essential steps: meditation and colloquy.
• 3 Optional steps: thanksgiving, offering, petition.

Fr. Gabriel’s book follows this same structure for each day:

• A short thought to help put you in the presence of God. 
• A reading for meditation. Each one offers two points for meditation so you can use the reading twice a day IF (and that’s a big IF) you want to. 
• Then take time to reflect on the text.
• Then speak to the Lord.

Of course you can speak to the Lord anytime you have an inner prompting to do so. And here we have arrived at the heart of mental prayer, this conversing with the Lord, this pouring out what we have in our own hearts and minds to the One Who loves us best, loves us when we are not at our best, loves us with a love that is the deepest. “God is Love” has to become more than words to us.

We find time to do the things we want to do. We can find time to do this if we really want to. I’m not pretending that I am so holy and sainty and wise that I meditate and pray for hours every day. There are days that get away from me completely and I accomplish nothing that I intended to. Oh, St. Paul, I hear those words so often: What I would do, I do not, and what I would not, I do. 

A word of advice. If you’re just starting out, go easy on yourself. A few minutes a day until you acquite a habit is sufficient. Five minutes is better than no minutes, and five minutes well spent is even better. 

Distractions? Never heard of ‘em! Okay, I couldn’t even type that with a straight face. Distractions come to all of us because we are human. Our minds jump around, we’re used to it. What we’re not used to is sitting down and attempting to be quiet. That’s when our jumpy minds will jump the most. But there’s no need to knock ourselves silly when it happens. Just bring your mind back to the reading or the meditation or whatever and get on with it. 

Note bene: This is not Buddhist mindfulness meditation. That is not what we are doing at all. We are putting our minds on Christ, putting on the mind of Christ, in St. Paul’s words. Not emptying them, not awakening the Buddha within, not counting our breaths, not doing anything other than learning to be still and know that the Lord is God and that He loves us.

We love Him in return. Or we can love Him. But how can we love someone we do not know? And how can we know Him? That is what the reading and meditating are for, so that we can get to know this One Who loves us so much. This truth needs to get down deep, seep down into our minds and our hearts. When that happens, we begin to catch fire. And when that happens, we are on our way. 

On the way.

I highly recommend a book like Divine Intimacy (one volume print edition or four-volume ebook edition) or In Conversation with God (single volumes or the full seven-volume set, I bought mine one at a time so I don’t have the nifty slipcase that comes with the whole set). Or use the Divine Office (you can use the DivineOffice.org website for free) or your Bible or the Stations of the Cross or the Mysteries of the Rosary (there’s a Rosary right here on the blog you can use anytime). 

Just choose something to get you started. Something that will help you get to know the Lord and help you open up to talk to Him. Pick one Mystery, or one Station, or one Psalm, or one reading from the saints from the Divine Office. Just pick one and begin. It’s not complicated. St. Teresa just wants us to sit down, be quiet, ask Him for help (ask the Blessed Mother, too, one of her titles is Our Lady of Good Help, after all), and go from there. Not too structured, not too loose, just structured enough, just loose enough. This is time spent with a loved one, not torture. A blessed time, not a horrible time spent against our will. 

Nobody is making us do this. Nobody is shaking a finger at us and saying, “It’s for your own good, you know! Now you sit down and tell the Lord how much you love Him, do it right now! I’ll be back in ten minutes and you better be kneeling at that prie-dieu, too!” I never went through anything like that and I don’t know if you did. I’m just imagining it happening to someone. Well, we’re grown ups now. (Are we really? The thought makes me giggle, I still feel like the same kid I’ve always been.) And we are getting serious about our interior life, wanting to have one and wanting to stop wasting time on things that do not help us become more Christ-like. We can sit down a few minutes a day and do this.

Am I trying to talk myself into it? I sure am. I’m just as bad as the next person about putting things off. I’m selfish and stubborn, and I know a lot of little things about a lot of big things, and too often I forget that that is not nearly enough, and is certainly nothing like actually doing something. 

Enough talk. It’s time for mental prayer. Just a few minutes. Say, ten. Start small, add a little here and there later, after the habit forms. Feels like you were distracted the whole time? So? Try again. Do the full ten minutes. Then stop. Go do something else. Maybe some of those things you read will come back to you during your day. Maybe something will get your attention and you want to look further into it. Good. At first you don’t know what you’ll do, then, as you continue sitting down ever day for just those few minutes, you’ll discover more and more comes to you. More and more words come back to you. We are soaking our hearts and minds and souls in the waters of St. Teresa’s Way of Prayer, her Way of Perfection.

Thank you for visiting and reading. May we spend a few minutes every day in loving converse with the One Who loves us. And may we become saints! God bless you and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

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Notes and Links

• Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene: Kindle: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3. Vol. 4. (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below.) Or get the print edition in one volume from Sophia Institute Press or from Baronius Press.
• The Way of Prayer: A Commentary on Saint Teresa’s Way of Perfection, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene: Paperback, Kindle. (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below.)
• St. Teresa’s masterpiece, Interior Castle, ICS Study Edition: Paperback, Kindle. 
• Way of Perfection, also by St. Teresa, ICS: Paperback, Kindle. (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below.) 
• In Conversation with God, by Fr. Francis Fernandez Carvajal: Use this link to see a list at Amazon showing when some volumes were recently republished. Or get them directly from Scepter Publishers.
• I Want to See God: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, Vol. 1, by Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD: Paperback (570 pages). (Amazon affiliate link, see Full Disclosure below.)
• I Am a Daughter of the Church: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, Vol. 2, by Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD: Paperback (696 pages). (Amazon affiliate link, see Full Disclosure below.)
• Both books bound together in one volume: I have that one but it seems to be out of print now. You may find it used at Amazon (you could use my general link if you search for it there, and thank you!) or elsewhere.

Images: I Want to See God, I am A Daughter of the Church, cover of the out-of-print two-in-one-volume work by Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD, and Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. In the Rosary banner, An angel comforting Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, by Carl Bloch, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

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At least it worked without doing what it was doing. Sheesh! That was a weeklong annoyance! Thank you to the WordPress team of Happiness Engineers, they always come through for me. +JMJ+

+JMJ+ When I began this series, then titled Lent, in the desert of Carmel, we were in the season of Lent. We’re in the season of Easter so we’ll continue now, in the garden of Carmel. We’ll go on with this book a little longer. This week we’ll continue with mental prayer, Part 2. (See other posts in this series.)

O Lord, let Your presence be the light and strength of my soul, the aid and support of my prayer.

—Divine Intimacy, 158, Loving Attention to God, Second Week after the Octave of Easter.

(Below are mostly quotes and some notes from the chapter on Mental Prayer in I Want to See God.)

Mental prayer, the way of perfection, is not just for Carmelites but for all interior souls and St. Teresa is their mother, Mater spiritualium. Some of the benefits of mental prayer are:

• It “fortifies convictions and sustains generous resolutions to work and to suffer”
• It is “a source of light” 
• It “fulfills with regard to charity the same role as the intellect with regard to the will”
• It precedes it [charity], orientates it, and enlightens it at each step
• “When one has become contemplative, prayer transforms the soul from glory to glory, according to the word of the apostle, into the very image of God.” (I Want to See God, 52-53)

Mental prayer, in my view, is nothing but friendly intercourse, and frequent solitary converse, with Him Who we know loves us. —St. Teresa, the Book of her Life, viii.

• Mental prayer is “the door of the castle and the way of perfection” in St. Teresa’s terms, and “less a particular exercise than the very practice of the spiritual life, being one with it, regulating and encompassing all the other elements (mortifications, readings, works of charity).”
• “Asceticism will be guided by mental prayer and will have for its aim, to purify the gaze of faith and to destroy whatever is an obstacle to more profound intimacy with God.”
• “Study will furnish food for mental prayer and will search out the best spiritual ways. Works of mercy will be the fruit of the overflowing of contemplation.”—Ibid., 53

God is love. 

“In order to meet with this Love that is God, we have sanctifying grace, of the same nature as God and consequently love like Him. This grace, which makes us His children, is an aptitude for union, for friendly exchange or intercourse with God, for reciprocal penetration. God-Love, always active, calls to us and awaits our response.”—IWTSG, 54.

God never changes. We are the ones who must change, must turn around and go out to meet Him. And this loving turning toward Him and His love for us are what mental prayer is, this exchange of love, this act of friendship and more, of a loving Father for His children, His love for them and them for Him.

“Mental prayer becomes thus an exchange of friendship between the living being such as we are and the living God who dwells in us.”—Ibid., 55.

According to temperaments, the intercourse of friendship will assume an intellectual form, or an affective, or even sensitive one.—Ibid., 55.

Mental prayer:

• will be sad or joyful,
  • moved or insensible, 
  • silent or expansive, 
  • active or inert,
• will take the form of vocal prayer or peaceful recollection,
  • meditation or simple regard, 
  • affective prayer or painful dryness,
• will experience elevation of spirit or the grip of anguish, sublime enthusiasm in the light or sweet abasement in profound humility.

The best prayer “will be the one that will best unite the soul to God and will assure it the best food for its development and its action.” Ibid., 56

“Love for God does not consist in shedding tears, in enjoying those consolations and that tenderness which for the most part we desire and in which we find comfort, but in serving Him with righteousness, fortitude of soul. and humility.”—St. Teresa, Life, xi.

There are other forms of prayer but St. Teresa teaches this one and she is teachings this way of prayer for the whole Church. Other ways of prayer may be for one person or another at different times in life, but this way is for all who want loving conversation with God. She doesn’t teach a method but something that goes beyond method. She doesn’t look upon method with contempt, but it’s not what she teaches. She’s after something else and method at the wrong time and place might very well squash it. 

I cannot recommend highly enough this book, I Want to See God, about Teresian spirituality. I also cannot recommend highly enough reading St. Teresa herself. I only wish I could read her witihout translation. Oh, to read her in her original Spanish! How many times have I kicked myself for not paying more attention in my two years of Spanish class. Two years, for nothing! Sigh.

”Draw me to You, O Lord, by the road You choose and in any way You will; I ask only for grace to know how to follow You always.”

—Divine Intimacy, 157, Aridity and Contemplation, Second Week after the Octave of Easter.

Thank you for visiting and reading. Christ is risen, alleluia! May we be not afraid to follow Him, to become saints! God bless you and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

Notes and Links

• I Want to See God: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, Vol. 1, by Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD: Paperback (570 pages). (Amazon affiliate link, see Full Disclosure below.)
• I Am a Daughter of the Church: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality, Vol. 2, by Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD: Paperback (696 pages). (Amazon affiliate link, see Full Disclosure below.)
• Both books bound together in one volume: I have that one but it seems to be out of print now. You may find it used.
• St. Teresa’s masterpieces, Interior Castle, ICS Study Edition: Paperback, Kindle. And Way of Perfection, ICS: Paperback, Kindle. (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below.) 
• Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. Kindle: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3. Vol. 4. (Amazon affiliate links, see Full Disclosure below.) Or get the print edition in one volume from Sophia Institute Press or from Baronius Press.

Image: I Want to See God, I am A Daughter of the Church, cover of the out-of-print two-in-one-volume work by Blessed Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus, OCD, and Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. The background image is of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. In the Rosary banner, An angel comforting Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, by Carl Bloch, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

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Christ is risen! Alleluia!

+JMJ+ I’m taking some time off for health reasons, so I won’t be posting today (other than this post) or the Twitter/X Rosary on Friday. I hope to be back to the regular schedule next week. Or maybe a new schedule. I don’t know yet, we’ll see. Prayers appreciated as always but especially right now. 

O Divine Physician, heal me and all who visit these pages.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Will be announcing a new giveaway soon. It’s about time, huh? I’m still pondering. Stay tuned. if you have any ideas, please share them in the comments. 

Thank you for visiting and reading. Christ is risen, alleluia! May we be not afraid to become saints! God bless you and may His peace be always with you. +JMJ+

Images: The New Man, Photo by Fr Lawrence Lew OP, via Flickr. Christ Healing the Blind Man, Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew OP, via Flickr. In the Rosary banner, An angel comforting Jesus before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, by Carl Bloch, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.