It is of the greatest importance, Philothea, that after your meditation you keep in mind the deliberate decisions and plans you have made in order to put them into practice carefully during that very day. This is the principal fruit of meditation. Without it, meditation is very often not only useless but even harmful. In fact, merely to meditate on virtues and not to practise them, sometimes makes our minds and our emotions swell with pride. We are convinced that we are in fact what we have resolved and decided to be. This may be true without doubt if your deliberate decisions are earnest and determined. However, they are not such but rather useless and dangerous if they are not put into practice.
Therefore, we must try in every way we can to practise our deliberate decisions, looking out for opportunities, small or great. For example, I am firmly determined to change, by my gentleness, the attitude of those who insult me. I shall try to meet them that very day in order to greet them in a friendly way. In case I do not come across them, I will at least speak well of them and pray to God for them.
On finishing this earnest prayer, take care not to give your heart a sudden jerk which will spill the balm you have received by means of the prayer. I mean, you must keep silence for some time if you can, and move your heart very gently from prayer to your occupations. Keep the feelings and good movements of the will produced in you for as long as possible.
A man is given some liquid of great value to take home in a bowl of beautiful porcelain. He will walk carefully, not looking to one side or the other. He will look sometimes in front, for fear of tripping over a stone or making a false step. Sometimes, he will look at his bowl to see that it is not leaning to one side. After finishing your meditation, you must behave in the same way. Do not become distracted all of a sudden, but look simply ahead. For instance, if you must meet someone to whom you have to speak or listen, this is unavoidable. Adjust yourself to it, but in such a way that you also take care of your heart. Thus as little as possible of the precious liquid of holy prayer will be lost.
Even more, you must get used to being able to pass from prayer to all kinds of activities which your occupation and way of life require of you, honestly and rightly, though they seem far removed from the good movements of the will received in prayer. I mean, the lawyer must be able to pass from prayer to his work in court, the shopkeeper to his business, the married woman to her duties in her family and the mother of her household tasks, with so much gentleness and peacefulness that their minds are not disturbed in any way. Prayer as well as other duties are according to the will of God. So passing from one to the other must be done in a spirit of humility and devotion.
Sometimes it may happen that, immediately after the preparation for meditation, your good movements of the will are wholly aroused towards God. At such times, Philothea, give vent to them freely and do not try to follow the method I have presented to you. Usually, reflection must precede good movements of the will and deliberate decisions. But if the Holy Spirit produces in you good movements of the will before the reflection, you must not look for the reflection since it is made only to arouse the good movements of the will. In short, whenever the good movements of the will present themselves to you, you must welcome them and make room for them, whether they come before or after all the reflections.
Although I have placed the good movements of the will after all the reflections, I have done so only the better to mark the different parts f prayer. Nevertheless, it is a general rule that we must never hold back the good movements of the will. Rather we must give expression to them freely when they present themselves. I say this not only regarding the other good movements of the will but also as regards the act of thanksgiving, the act of oblation and the act of petition, which can be made among the reflections. These must not be controlled any more than the other good movements of the will. But later, when concluding the meditation, it is necessary to take them up again and repeat them.
With regard to the deliberate decisions, they are to be made after the good movements of the will, towards the end of the whole meditation, before the conclusions. All the more so, as in these we have to remember specific and familiar things. If we were to make them amongst the good movements of the will, they would put us in danger of being led into distractions.
Among the good movements of the will and the deliberate decisions, it is good to use colloquy, speaking sometimes to our Lord, sometimes to the Angels and to the persons represented in the mysteries, to the Saints and to oneself, to one’s own heart, to sinner. We can even speak to inanimate creatures as David does in his Psalms (99:7-9 and 149:3-10)[1] and like other Saints in their meditations and prayers.
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[1] See also Daniel 3:59-78 (Jerusalem Bible).