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🟡 Short and Easy Method of Prayer (Full Audiobook) | Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

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  Speaker 1: Walk before me. And be thou perfect. Genesis, chapter 17,
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  Speaker 1: verse 1. Author's Preface I did not write this little
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  Speaker 1: work with the thought of its being given to the public.
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  Speaker 1: It was prepared for the help of a few Christians
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  Speaker 1: who were desirous of loving God with the whole heart,
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  Speaker 1: but so many have requested copies of it because of
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  Speaker 1: the benefit they have derived from its perusal that I
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  Speaker 1: have been asked to publish it. I have left it
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  Speaker 1: in its natural simplicity I do not condemn the opinions
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  Speaker 1: of any. On the contrary, I esteem those which are
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  Speaker 1: held by others, and submit all that I have written
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  Speaker 1: to the censure of persons of experience and learning. I
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  Speaker 1: only ask of all that they will not be content
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  Speaker 1: with examining the outside, but they will penetrate the design
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  Speaker 1: of the writer, which is only to lead others to
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  Speaker 1: love God, and to serve Him with greater happiness and success,
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  Speaker 1: by enabling them to do it in a simple and
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  Speaker 1: easy way. fit for the little ones who are not
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  Speaker 1: capable of extraordinary things, but who truly desire to give
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  Speaker 1: themselves to God. I ask all who may read it,
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  Speaker 1: to read without prejudice, and they will discover, under common expressions,
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  Speaker 1: a hidden unction which will lead them to seek for
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  Speaker 1: a happiness which all ought to expect to possess. I
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  Speaker 1: use the word facility, saying that perfection is easy, because
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  Speaker 1: it is easy to find God, when we seek Him
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  Speaker 1: within ourselves. The passage may be quoted, which says, Ye
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  Speaker 1: shall seek me, and shall not find me. Yet this
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  Speaker 1: need not occasion any difficulty, because the same God, who
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  Speaker 1: cannot contradict Himself, has said, He that seeketh, findeth. He
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  Speaker 1: who seeks God, and who yet is unwilling to forsake sin,
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  Speaker 1: will not find Him, because he is seeking Him where
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  Speaker 1: he cannot be found. Therefore it is added, Ye shall
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  Speaker 1: die in your sins. But he who sincerely desires to
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  Speaker 1: forsake sin, that he may draw near to God, will
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  Speaker 1: find him infallibly. Many people imagine religion so frightful and
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  Speaker 1: prayer so extraordinary that they are not willing to strive
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  Speaker 1: after them, never expecting to attain to them. But as
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  Speaker 1: the difficulty which we see in a thing causes us
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  Speaker 1: to despair of succeeding in it, and at the same
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  Speaker 1: time removes the desire to undertake it, and as, when
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  Speaker 1: a thing appears both desirable and easy to be obtained,
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  Speaker 1: we give ourselves to it with pleasure, and pursue it boldly,
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  Speaker 1: I have been constrained to set forth the advantage and
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  Speaker 1: the facility of this way. Oh, if we were persuaded
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  Speaker 1: of the goodness of God toward His poor creatures, and
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  Speaker 1: of the desire which He has to communicate Himself to them,
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  Speaker 1: We should not imagine so many obstacles and despair so
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  Speaker 1: easily of obtaining a good which he is so infinitely
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  Speaker 1: desirous of imparting to us. And if he has not
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  Speaker 1: spared his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
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  Speaker 1: is there anything he can refuse us? Assuredly not. We
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  Speaker 1: only need a little courage and perseverance. We have so
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  Speaker 1: much of both for trifling temporal interests. and we have
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  Speaker 1: none for the one thing needful. As for those who
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  Speaker 1: find a difficulty in believing that it is easy to
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  Speaker 1: find God in this way, let them not believe all
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  Speaker 1: that they are told, but rather let them make trial
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  Speaker 1: of it, that they may judge for themselves, and they
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  Speaker 1: will find that I say very little in comparison with
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  Speaker 1: that which is. Dear reader, study this little work with
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  Speaker 1: a simple and sincere heart, with lowliness of mind, without
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  Speaker 1: wishing to criticize it, and you will find it of
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  Speaker 1: good to you. Receive it with the same spirit as
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  Speaker 1: that in which it is given, which is no other
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  Speaker 1: than the longing that you may be led to give
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  Speaker 1: yourself unreservedly to God. My desire is that it may
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  Speaker 1: be the means of leading the simple ones and the
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  Speaker 1: children to their Father, who loves their humble confidence, and
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  Speaker 1: to whom distrust is so displeasing. Seek nothing but the
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  Speaker 1: love of God. Have a sincere desire for your salvation,
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  Speaker 1: and you will assuredly find it, following this little, unmethodical method.
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  Speaker 1: I do not pretend to elevate my sentiments above those
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  Speaker 1: of others, but I relate simply what has been my
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  Speaker 1: own experience, as well as that of others, and the
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  Speaker 1: advantage which I have found in this simple and natural
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  Speaker 1: manner of going to God. If this book treats of
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  Speaker 1: nothing else but the short and easy method of prayer,
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  Speaker 1: it is because, being written only for that, it cannot
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  Speaker 1: speak of other things. It is certain that, if it
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  Speaker 1: be read in the spirit in which it has been written,
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  Speaker 1: there will be found nothing in it to shock the mind.
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  Speaker 1: Those who will make the experience of it will be
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  Speaker 1: the most certain of the truth which it contains. It
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  Speaker 1: is to thee, O holy child Jesus, who lovest simplicity
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  Speaker 1: and innocence, and who findest thy delight in the children
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  Speaker 1: of men, that is to say, with those among men
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  Speaker 1: who are willing to become children, it is to thee,
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  Speaker 1: I say, to give worth and value to this little work,
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  Speaker 1: impressing it on the heart, and leading those who read
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  Speaker 1: it to seek thee within themselves, where thou wilt take
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  Speaker 1: thy rest, receiving the tokens of their love, and giving
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  Speaker 1: them proofs of thine. It is thy work, O divine child,
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  Speaker 1: O uncreated love, O silent word, to make thyself beloved, tasted,
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  Speaker 1: and heard. Thou art able to do it, and I
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  Speaker 1: even dare to say that thou wilt do it by
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  Speaker 1: means of this little work, which is all to thee,
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  Speaker 1: all of thee, and all for thee. A Short Method
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  Speaker 1: of Prayer Chapter 1 All are commanded to pray. Prayer
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  Speaker 1: the great means of salvation, and possible at all times,
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  Speaker 1: by the most simple. Prayer is nothing else but the
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  Speaker 1: application of the heart to God, and the interior exercise
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  Speaker 1: of love. St. Paul commands us to pray without ceasing.
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  Speaker 1: Our Lord says, Take ye heed, watch and pray. And
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  Speaker 1: what I say unto you, I say unto all. All, then,
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  Speaker 1: are capable of prayer, and it is the duty of
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  Speaker 1: all to engage in it. But I do not think
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  Speaker 1: that all are fit for meditation, and therefore it is
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  Speaker 1: not that sort of prayer which God demands or desires
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  Speaker 1: of them. My dear friends, whoever you may be, who
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  Speaker 1: desire to be saved, come unto God in prayer. I
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  Speaker 1: counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,
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  Speaker 1: that thou mayest be rich. It is easily to be obtained,
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  Speaker 1: far more easily than you could ever imagine. Come, all
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  Speaker 1: ye that are athirst, and take this water of life freely.
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  Speaker 1: Do not amuse yourselves by hewing out to yourselves broken
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  Speaker 1: cisterns that can hold no water. Come, hungry souls who
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  Speaker 1: find nothing that can satisfy you and you shall be filled. Come,
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  Speaker 1: poor afflicted ones, weigh down with griefs and sorrows, and
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  Speaker 1: you shall be comforted. Come, sick ones, to the great physician,
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  Speaker 1: and do not fear to approach him, because you are
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  Speaker 1: so weak and diseased. Expose all your diseases to him,
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  Speaker 1: and they shall be healed. Come, children, to your father.
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  Speaker 1: He will receive you with open arms of love. Come,
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  Speaker 1: wandering and scattered sheep, to your shepherd. Come, sinners, to
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  Speaker 1: your Saviour. Come, ignorant and foolish ones, who believe yourselves
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  Speaker 1: incapable of prayer. It is you who are the most
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  Speaker 1: fitted for it. Come all, without exception. Jesus Christ calls
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  Speaker 1: you all. Let those only refuse to come who have
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  Speaker 1: no heart. The invitation is not for them. for we
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  Speaker 1: must have a heart in order to love. But who
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  Speaker 1: is indeed without heart? O come and give that heart
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  Speaker 1: to God, and learn in the place of prayer how
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  Speaker 1: to do it. All those who long for prayer are
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  Speaker 1: capable of it, who have ordinary grace and the gift
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, which is freely promised to all
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  Speaker 1: who ask it. Prayer is the key of perfection and
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  Speaker 1: of sovereign happiness. It is the efficacious means of getting
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  Speaker 1: rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues. For
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  Speaker 1: the way to become perfect is to live in the
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  Speaker 1: presence of God He tells us this himself. Walk before
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  Speaker 1: me and be thou perfect. Prayer alone can bring you
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  Speaker 1: into his presence and keep you there continually. What we
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  Speaker 1: need then is an attitude of prayer in which we
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  Speaker 1: can constantly abide and and out of which exterior occupations
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  Speaker 1: cannot draw us. A prayer which can be offered alike
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  Speaker 1: by princes, kings, prelates, magistrates, soldiers, children, artisans, labourers, women
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  Speaker 1: and the sick. This prayer is not mental, but of
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  Speaker 1: the heart. It is not a prayer of thought alone,
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  Speaker 1: because the mind of man is so limited, that while
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  Speaker 1: it is occupied with one thing, It cannot be thinking
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  Speaker 1: of another, but it is the prayer of the heart
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  Speaker 1: which cannot be interrupted by the occupations of the mind.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing can interrupt the prayer of the heart but unruly affections,
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  Speaker 1: and when once we have tasted of the love of God,
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  Speaker 1: it is impossible to find our delight in anything but himself.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing is easier than to have God and to live
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  Speaker 1: upon him. He is more truly in us than we
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  Speaker 1: are in ourselves. He is more anxious to give himself
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  Speaker 1: to us than we are to possess him. All that
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  Speaker 1: we want is to know the way to seek him,
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  Speaker 1: which is so easy and so natural that breathing itself
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  Speaker 1: is not more so. O you who imagine yourselves incapable
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  Speaker 1: of religious feeling, you may live in prayer and in
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  Speaker 1: God as easily and as continuously as you live by
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  Speaker 1: the air you breathe, will you not, then, be inexcusable
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  Speaker 1: if you neglect to do it after you have learned
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  Speaker 1: the way? Chapter 2 First Degree of Prayer Meditation and
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  Speaker 1: Meditative Reading The Lord's Prayer Passage from the First Degree
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  Speaker 1: to the Second There are two means by which we
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  Speaker 1: may be led into the higher forms of prayer. One
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  Speaker 1: is meditation. The other is meditative reading. By meditative reading,
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  Speaker 1: I mean the taking of some truths, either doctrinal or practical,
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  Speaker 1: the latter rather than the former, and reading them in
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  Speaker 1: this way. Take the truth which has presented itself to you,
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  Speaker 1: and read two or three lines. seeking to enter into
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  Speaker 1: the full meaning of the words, and go on no further,
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  Speaker 1: so long as you find satisfaction in them. Leave the
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  Speaker 1: place only when it becomes insipid. After that, take another passage,
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  Speaker 1: and do the same, not reading more than half a
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  Speaker 1: page at once. It is not so much from the
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  Speaker 1: amount read that we derive profit, as from the manner
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  Speaker 1: of reading. Those people who get through so much do
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  Speaker 1: not profit from it. The bees can only draw the
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  Speaker 1: juice from the flowers by resting on them, not by
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  Speaker 1: flying round them. Much reading is more for scholastic than
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  Speaker 1: for spiritual science. But in order to derive profit from
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  Speaker 1: spiritual books, we should read them in this way. And
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  Speaker 1: I am sure that the manner of reading accustoms us
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  Speaker 1: gradually to prayer. and gives us a deeper desire for it.
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  Speaker 1: The other way is meditation, in which we should engage
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  Speaker 1: at a chosen time, and not in the hour given
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  Speaker 1: to reading. I think the way to enter into it
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  Speaker 1: is this. After having brought ourselves into the presence of
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  Speaker 1: God by a definite act of faith, we should read
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  Speaker 1: something substantial, not so much to reason upon it as
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  Speaker 1: to fix the attention, observing that the principal exercise should
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  Speaker 1: be the presence of God, and that the subject should
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  Speaker 1: rather fix the attention than exercise reason. This faith in
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  Speaker 1: the presence of God within our hearts must lead us
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  Speaker 1: to enter within ourselves, collecting our thoughts and preventing their wandering.
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  Speaker 1: This is an effectual way of getting rid of distracting
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  Speaker 1: thoughts and of losing sight of outward things in order
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  Speaker 1: to draw near to God. who can only be found
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  Speaker 1: in the secret place of our hearts, which is the
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  Speaker 1: Sancta Sanctorum in which he dwells. He has promised that
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  Speaker 1: if anyone keeps his commandments, he will come to him
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  Speaker 1: and make his abode with him. St. Augustine reproaches himself
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  Speaker 1: for the time he lost through not having sought God
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  Speaker 1: at first in this way. When, then, we are thus
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  Speaker 1: buried in ourselves, and deeply penetrated with the presence of
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  Speaker 1: God within us, when the senses are all drawn from
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  Speaker 1: the circumference to the centre, which, though it is not
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  Speaker 1: easily accomplished at first, becomes quite natural afterwards, when the
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  Speaker 1: soul is thus gathered up within itself, and is sweetly
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  Speaker 1: occupied with the truth read, not in reasoning upon it,
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  Speaker 1: but in feeding upon it, and exciting the will by
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  Speaker 1: the affection, rather than the understanding by consideration, the affection
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  Speaker 1: being thus touched, must be suffered to repose, sweetly and
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  Speaker 1: at peace, swallowing what it has tasted. As a person
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  Speaker 1: who only masticated an excellent meat would not be nourished
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  Speaker 1: by it, although he would be sensible of its taste,
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  Speaker 1: unless he ceased the movement in order to swallow it,
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  Speaker 1: so when the affection is stirred, if we seek continually
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  Speaker 1: to stir it, we extinguish its fire. and thus deprive
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  Speaker 1: the soul of its nourishment. We must swallow by a
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  Speaker 1: loving repose, full of respect and confidence, what we have
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  Speaker 1: masticated and tasted. This method is very necessary, and would
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  Speaker 1: advance the soul in a short time, more than any
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  Speaker 1: other would do in several years. But as I said
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  Speaker 1: that the direct and principal exercise should be the sense
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  Speaker 1: of the presence of God, we must most faithfully recall
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  Speaker 1: the senses when they wander. This is a short and
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  Speaker 1: efficacious way of fighting with distractions, because those who endeavor
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  Speaker 1: directly to oppose them irritate and increase them. But by
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  Speaker 1: losing ourselves in the thought of a present God and
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  Speaker 1: suffering our thoughts to be drawn to Him, we combat
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  Speaker 1: them indirectly and without thinking of them but in an
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  Speaker 1: effectual manner. And here let me warn beginners not to
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  Speaker 1: run from one truth to another, from one subject to another,
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  Speaker 1: but to keep themselves to one, so long as they
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  Speaker 1: feel a taste for it. This is the way to
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  Speaker 1: enter deeply into truths to taste them, and to have
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  Speaker 1: them impressed upon us. I say it is difficult at
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  Speaker 1: first thus to retire within ourselves, because of the habits
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  Speaker 1: which are natural to us, of being taken up with
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  Speaker 1: the outside, but when we are a little accustomed to it,
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  Speaker 1: it becomes exceedingly easy, both because we have formed the
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  Speaker 1: habit of it, and because God, who only desires to
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  Speaker 1: communicate himself to us, sends us abundant grace, and an
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  Speaker 1: experimental sense of his presence, which renders it easy. Let
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  Speaker 1: us apply this method to the Lord's Prayer. We say,
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  Speaker 1: Our Father, thinking that God is within us and will
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  Speaker 1: indeed be our Father. After having pronounced this word, Father,
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  Speaker 1: we remain a few moments in silence, waiting for the
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  Speaker 1: Heavenly Father to make known His will to us. Then
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  Speaker 1: we ask the King of glory to reign within us,
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  Speaker 1: abandoning ourselves to Him, that He may do it, and
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  Speaker 1: yielding to Him the right that He has over us.
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  Speaker 1: If we feel here an inclination to peace and silence,
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  Speaker 1: we should not continue, but remain thus, so long as
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  Speaker 1: the condition may last, after which we proceed to the
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  Speaker 1: second petition. Thy will be done, on earth as it
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  Speaker 1: is in heaven. We then desire that God may accomplish,
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  Speaker 1: in us and by us, all His will. We give
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  Speaker 1: up to God our heart and our liberty, that He
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  Speaker 1: may dispose of them at His pleasure. Then, seeing that
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  Speaker 1: the occupation of the will should be love, we desire
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  Speaker 1: to love, and we ask God to give us His love.
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  Speaker 1: But all this is done quietly, peacefully, and so on
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  Speaker 1: with the rest of the prayer. At other times, we
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  Speaker 1: hold ourselves in the position of sheep near to the shepherd,
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  Speaker 1: asking of him our true food. O divine shepherd, thou
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  Speaker 1: feedest thy sheep with thine own hand. And thou art
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  Speaker 1: their food from day to day. We may also bring
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  Speaker 1: before him our family desires, but it must all be
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  Speaker 1: done with the remembrance by faith of the presence of
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  Speaker 1: God within us. We can form no imagination of what
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  Speaker 1: God is. A lively faith in his presence is sufficient,
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  Speaker 1: for we can consider no image of God, though we
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  Speaker 1: may of Christ, regarding Him as crucified, or as a child,
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  Speaker 1: or in some other condition, provided that we always seek
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  Speaker 1: Him within ourselves. At other times we come to Him
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  Speaker 1: as to a physician, bringing our maladies to Him, that
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  Speaker 1: He may heal them, but always without effort, with a
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  Speaker 1: short silence from time to time, that the silence may
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  Speaker 1: be mingled with the action, gradually lengthening the silence and
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  Speaker 1: shortening the spoken prayer, until at length, as we yield
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  Speaker 1: to the operation of God, He gains the supremacy. When
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  Speaker 1: the presence of God is given, and the soul begins
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  Speaker 1: to taste of silence and repose, This experimental sense of
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  Speaker 1: the presence of God introduces it to the second degree
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  Speaker 1: of prayer. Recording by Jordan A Short Method of Prayer
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  Speaker 1: by Madame Guillaume Translated by A. W. Marston Chapters 3
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  Speaker 1: to 10 Chapter 3 Second Degree of Prayer Called here
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  Speaker 1: the Prayer of Simplicity The second degree has been variously termed. Contemplation,
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  Speaker 1: the prayer of silence and of repose, while others again
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  Speaker 1: have called it the prayer of simplicity. And it is
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  Speaker 1: of this last term that I shall make use here,
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  Speaker 1: being more appropriate than that of contemplation, which signifies a
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  Speaker 1: degree of prayer more advanced than that of which I speak.
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  Speaker 1: After a time, as I have said, the soul becomes
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  Speaker 1: sensible of a facility in recognizing the presence of God.
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  Speaker 1: It collects itself more easily. Prayer becomes natural and pleasant.
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  Speaker 1: it knows that it leads to God, and it perceives
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  Speaker 1: the smell of His perfumes. Then it must change its method,
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  Speaker 1: and observe carefully what I am about to say, without
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  Speaker 1: being astonished at its apparent implausibility. First of all, when
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  Speaker 1: you bring yourself into the presence of God by faith,
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  Speaker 1: remain a short time in an attitude of respectful silence. If,
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  Speaker 1: from the beginning, in making this act of faith, you
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  Speaker 1: are sensible of a little taste of the presence of God,
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  Speaker 1: remain as you are without troubling yourself on any subject,
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  Speaker 1: and keep that which has been given to you, so
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  Speaker 1: long as it may remain. If it leaves you, excite
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  Speaker 1: your will by means of some tender affection, and if
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  Speaker 1: you then find that your former state of peace has returned,
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  Speaker 1: remain in it. The fire must be blown softly, and
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  Speaker 1: as soon as it is lighted, Cease to blow it,
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  Speaker 1: or you will put it out. It is also necessary
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  Speaker 1: that you should go to God, not so much to
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  Speaker 1: obtain something from him as to please him and to
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  Speaker 1: do his will. For a servant who only serves his
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  Speaker 1: master in proportion to the recompense he receives is unworthy
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  Speaker 1: of any remuneration. Go then to prayer, not only to
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: enjoy God, but to be as he wills. This will
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: keep you equal in times of barrenness and in times
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: of abundance, and you will not be dismayed at the
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: repulses of God, nor by his apparent indifference. As God's
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: only desire is to give himself to the loving soul
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: who desires to seek him, he often hides himself in
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: order to arouse it, and compel it to seek him
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: with love and fidelity. But how does he reward the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: faithfulness of his beloved? And how are his apparent flights
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: followed by loving caresses? The soul imagines that it is
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: a proof of its fidelity, and of its increased love,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: that it seeks God with an effort, or that at
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: least such seeking will soon lead to his return. But no,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: this is not the way in this degree. With a
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: loving impatience, with deep humility and abasement, with an affection
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: deep and yet restful, with a respectful silence, you must
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: await the return of your beloved. You will thus show
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: him that it is himself alone that you love, and
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: his good pleasure, and not the pleasure that you find
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: in loving him. Therefore it is said, Make not haste
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: in time of trouble, cleave unto him and depart not away,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that thou mayest be increased at thy last end. Suffer
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the suspensions and the delays of the visible consolations of God.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Be patient in prayer, even though you should do nothing
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: all your life, but wait in patience, with a heart humbled, abandoned, resigned,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and content for the return of your beloved. O excellent prayer,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: how it moves the heart of God, and obliges him
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: to return more than anything else. Chapter 5 Abandonment to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: God Its fruit and its irrevocability, in what it consists,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: God exhorts us to it. It is here that true
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: abandonment and consecration to God should commence by our being
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: deeply convinced that that all which happens to us, moment
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: by moment, is the will of God, and therefore all
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: that is necessary to us. This conviction will render us
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: contented with everything, and will make us see the commonest
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: events in God, and not in the creature. I beg
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of you, whoever you may be, who are desirous of
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: giving yourselves to God, not to take yourselves back when
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: once you are given to Him, and to remember that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: that a thing once given away is no longer at
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: your disposal. Abandonment is the key to the inner life.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: He who is thoroughly abandoned will soon be perfect. You must, then,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: hold firmly to your abandonment without listening to reason or
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to reflection. A great faith makes a great abandonment. You
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: must trust wholly in God, against hope believing in hope.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Abandonment is the casting off of all care of ourselves,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: to leave ourselves to be guided entirely by God. All
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Christians are exhorted to abandonment, for it is said to all,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Take no thought for the morrow, for your heavenly Father
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: knoweth that ye have need of all these things. In
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: be established. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: in him, and he shall bring it to pass. Abandonment, then,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: ought to be an utter leaving of ourselves, both outwardly
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: and inwardly, in the hands of God, forgetting ourselves, and
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: thinking only of God. By this means the heart is
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: kept always free and contented. Practically, it should be a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: continual loss of our own will in the will of God,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: a renunciation of all natural inclinations, however good they may appear,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: in order that we may be left free to choose
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: only as God chooses. We should be indifferent to all things,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: whether temporal or spiritual, for the body or the soul,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: having the past in forgetfulness, the future to providence, and
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: giving the present to God, contented with the present moment,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: which brings with it God's eternal will for us, attributing
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: nothing which happens to us to the creature, but seeing
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: all things in God, and regarding them as coming infallibly
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: from His hand, with the exception only of our own sin.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Leave yourselves then to be guided by God as He will,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: whether as regards the inner or the outward life. 6.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Of suffering, which must be accepted as from God, its fruits.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Be content with all the suffering that God may lay
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: upon you. If you will love him purely, you will
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: be as willing to follow him to Calvary as to Tabor.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: He must be loved as much on Calvary as on Tabor,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: since it is there that he makes the greatest manifestation
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of his love. Do not act then like those people
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: who give themselves at one time and hold themselves back
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: at another. They give themselves to be caressed and take
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: themselves back when they are crucified, or else they seek
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: for consolation in the creature. You can only find consolation
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: in the love of the cross and in complete abandonment.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: He who has no love for the cross has no
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: love for God. It is impossible to love God without
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: loving the cross, and a heart which has learned to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: love the cross finds sweetness in joy and pleasure, even
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: in the bitterest things. To the hungry soul every bitter
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: thing is sweet, because it is as hungry for the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: cross as it is hungry for God. The cross gives God,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and God gives the cross. Abandonment and the cross go together.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: As soon as you are sensible that something is repugnant
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: to you, which presents itself to you in the light
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: of suffering and abandon yourself at once to God for
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: that very thing, and present yourself as a sacrifice to Him,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: and you will see that when the cross comes, it
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: will have lost much of its weight, because you will
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: desire it. This will not prevent your being sensible of
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: its weight. Some people imagine that it is not suffering
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: to feel the cross. The feeling of suffering is one
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of the principal parts of suffering itself. Jesus himself was
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: willing to suffer in its intensity. Often the cross is
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: born with weakness, at other times with strength. All should
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: be equal in the will of God. It will be
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: objected that by this way, Mysteries will not be made known.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: It is just the contrary. They are given to the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: soul in reality. Jesus Christ, to whom it is abandoned,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and whom it follows as the way, whom it hears
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: as the truth, and who animates it as the life,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: impressing himself upon it, imparts to it his own condition.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: To bear the conditions of Christ is something far greater
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: than than merely to consider those conditions. Paul bore the
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: conditions of Christ on his body. I bear in my body,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: he says, the marks of the Lord Jesus. But he
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: does not say that he reasoned about them. Often Christ
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: gives in this state of abandonment views of his conditions
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: in a striking manner. we must receive equally all the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: dispositions in which he may be pleased to place us,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: choosing for ourselves to abide near to him, and to
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: be annihilated before him, but receiving equally all that he
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: gives us, light or darkness, facility or barrenness, strength or weakness,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: sweetness or bitterness, temptations or distractions, sorrow, care, uncertainty, None
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: of these things ought to move us. There are some
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: persons to whom God is continually revealing His mysteries. Let
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: them be faithful to them. But when God sees fit
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: to remove them, let them suffer them to be taken.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Others are troubled because no mysteries are made known to them.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: This is needless, since a loving attention to God includes
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: all particular devotion. and that which is united to God alone,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: by its rest in him, is instructed in a most
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: excellent manner in all mysteries. He who loves God loves
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: all that is of him. Chapter 8 On Virtue All
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: virtues given with God in this degree of the prayer
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: of the heart. This is the short and the sure
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: way of acquiring virtue, because God, being the principle of
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: all virtue, we possess all virtue in possessing God. More
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: than this, I say, that all virtue which is not
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: given inwardly is a mask of virtue, and like a
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: garment that can be taken off and will wear out.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: But virtue, communicated fundamentally, is essential, true, and permanent. the
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: king's daughter is all glorious within. And there are none
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: who practice virtue more constantly than those who acquire it
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: in this way, though virtue is not a distinct subject
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: of their thought. How hungry these loving ones are after suffering!
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: They think only of what can please their beloved, and
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: they begin to neglect themselves and to think less of themselves.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: The more they love God, the more they hate themselves. Oh,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: if all could learn this method, so easy that it
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: is suited for all, for the most ignorant as for
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: the most learned. How easily the whole church would be reformed.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: You only need to love. Saint Augustine says, Love and
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: do as you please. For when we love perfectly, we
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: shall not desire to do anything that could be displeasing
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: to our beloved. Chapter 9 Of Perfect Conversion Which is
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: an effect of this method of prayer, two of its aids,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the attraction of God and the central inclination of the soul.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: have deeply revolted. Conversion is nothing else but a turning
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: from the creature to God. Conversion is not perfect, though
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: it is necessary for salvation, when it is merely a
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: turning from sin to grace. To be complete, it must
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: be a turning from without to within. The soul, being
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: turned in the direction of God, has a great facility
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: for remaining converted to Him. The longer it is converted,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the nearer it approaches to God and attaches itself to Him,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and the nearer it approaches to God the more it
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: becomes necessarily drawn from the creature which is opposed to God.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: But this cannot be done by a violent effort of
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: the creature. All that it can do is to remain
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: turned in the direction of God, in a perpetual adherence.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: God has an attracting virtue, which draws the soul more
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: strongly towards himself, and in attracting it, he purifies it,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: as we see the sun. attracting a dense vapour, and gradually,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: without any other effort on the part of the vapour
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: than that of letting itself be drawn, the sun, by
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: bringing it near to himself, refines and purifies it. There is, however,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: this difference, that the vapour is not drawn freely and
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: does not follow willingly, as is the case with the soul.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: This manner of turning within is very simple. and makes
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the soul advance naturally and without effort, because God is
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: its centre. The centre has always a strong attractive power,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and the larger the centre, the stronger is its attractive force.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Besides this attraction of the centre, there is given to
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: all natural objects a strong tendency to become united with
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: their centre. As soon as anything is turned in the
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: direction of its centre, unless it be stopped by some
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: invincible obstacle, it rushes towards it with extreme velocity. A
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: stone in the air is no sooner let loose and
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: turned towards the earth than it tends to it by
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: its own weight as its centre. It is the same
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: with fire and water, which being no longer arrested, run
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: incessantly towards their centre. Now I say that the soul
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: is by the effort it has made in inward recollection,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: being turned towards its centre, without any other effort, but
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: simply by the weight of love, falls towards its centre,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and the more it remains quiet and at rest, making
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: no movement of its own, the more rapidly it will advance,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: because it thus allows that attractive virtue to draw it.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: All the care, then, that we have is to promote
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: this inward recollection, as much as possible, not being astonished
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: at the difficulty we may find in this exercise, which
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: will soon be recompensed with a wonderful cooperation on the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: part of God, which will render it very easy. When
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: the passions rise, a look towards God, who is present
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: within us, easily deadens them. Any other resistance would irritate
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: rather than appease them. Chapter 10 higher degree of prayer,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: which is that of the simple presence of God, or
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: active contemplation. The soul, faithfully exercising itself in the affection
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: and love of its God, is astonished to find him
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: taking complete possession of it. His presence becomes so natural
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: that it would be impossible not to have it, it
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: becomes habitual to the soul, which is also conscious of
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: a great calm spreading over it. Its prayer is all silence,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: and God imparts to it an intrinsic love, which is
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the commencement of ineffable happiness. Oh, if I could describe
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the infinite degrees which follow! But I must stop here,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: since I am writing for beginners. and wait till God
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: shall have delight what may be useful to those more advanced.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: I can only say that at this point it is
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: most important that all natural operation should cease, that God
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: may act alone. Be still and know that I am God,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: is his own word by David. But man is so
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: attached to his own works that that he cannot believe
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: God is working unless he can feel, know and distinguish
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: his operation. He does not see that it is the
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: speed of his course which prevents his seeing the extent
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: of his advancement, and that the operation of God, becoming
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: more abundant, absorbs that of the creature. As we see
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: that the sun, in proportion as he rises, absorbs the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: light of the stars. which were easily distinguishable before he appeared.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: It is not the want of light, but an excess
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: of light, which prevents our distinguishing the stars. It is
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: the same here. Man can no longer distinguish his own operation,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: because the strong light absorbs all his little distinct lights,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: and makes them fade away entirely, because God's excess surpasses
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: them all. so that those who accuse this degree of prayer,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: of being a state of idleness, are greatly deceived, and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: only speak thus from want of experience. Oh, if they
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: would only prove it! In how short a time they
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: would become experimentally acquainted with this matter! I say, then,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: that this failure of work does not spring from scarcity,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: but from abundance. Two classes of persons are silent. The
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: one because they have nothing to say. The other because
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: they have too much. It is thus in this degree.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: We are silent from excess, not from want. Water causes
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: death to two persons in very different ways. One dies
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: of thirst. Another is drowned. The one dies from want.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: the other from abundance. So here it is abundance which
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: causes the cessation of natural operation. It is therefore important
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: in this degree to remain as much as possible in stillness.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: At the commencement of this prayer, a movement of affection
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: is necessary. But when grace begins to flow into us,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: we have nothing to do but to remain at rest.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: and take all that God gives, any other movement would
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: prevent our profiting by this grace, which is given in
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: order to draw us into the rest of love. The soul,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: in this peaceful attitude of prayer, falls into a mystic
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: sleep in which all its natural powers are silenced until
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: that which had been temporary becomes its permanent condition. You
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: see that the soul is thus led, without effort, without study,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: without artifice. The heart is not a fortified place, which
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: must be taken by cannonading and violence. It is a
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: kingdom of peace, which is possessed by love. Gently following
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: in his train, you will soon reach the degree of
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: intuitive prayer. God asks nothing extraordinary and difficult. On the contrary,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: He is most pleased with childlike simplicity. The grandest part
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: of religion is the most simple. It is the same
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: with natural things. Do you wish to get to the sea?
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Embark upon a river, and insensibly and without effort you
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: will be taken to it. Do you wish to get
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: to God? Take His way, so quiet, so easy, and
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: in a little while, you will be taken to Him
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: in a manner that will surprise you. Oh, if only
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: you would try it! How soon you would see that
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I am telling you only too little, and that the
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: experience would far surpass any description that could be given.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: What do you fear? Why do you not throw yourself
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: at once into the arms of love, who only stretch
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: them out upon the cross in order to take you in?
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: What risk can there be in trusting God and abandoning
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: yourself to Him? Oh, He will not deceive you unless
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: it be by giving you far more than you ever expected.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: While those who expect everything from themselves may well take
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: to themselves the reproach which God utters by the mouth
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: of Isaiah. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: yet saidst thou not, There is no hope. CHAPTER XI
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: CHAPTER XI of rest in the presence of God. Its fruits,
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: inward silence. God commands it, outward silence. The soul, being
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: brought to this place, needs no other preparation than that
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: of repose, for the presence of God during the day,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: which is the great result of prayer, or rather, prayer itself,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: begins to be intuitive and almost continual. The soul is
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: conscious of a deep inward happiness and feels that God
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: is in it more truly than it is in itself.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: It has only one thing to do in order to
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: find God, which is to retire within itself. As soon
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: as the eyes are closed, it finds itself in prayer.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: It is astonished at this infinite happiness. There is carried
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: on within it a conversation of which outward things cannot interrupt.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: It might be said of this method of prayer, as
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: was said of wisdom, All good things together come to
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: me with her. For virtue flows naturally into the soul,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: and is practiced so easily, that it seems to be
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: quite natural to it. It has within it a germ
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: of life and fruitfulness, which gives it a facility for
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: all good, and an insensibility to all evil. Let it
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: then remain faithful, and seek no other frame of mind
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: than that of simple rest. It has only to suffer
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: itself to be filled with this divine effusion. The Lord
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: silence before Him. The reason why inward silence is so
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: necessary is that Christ... being the eternal and essential word,
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: in order that he may be received into the soul,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: there must be a disposition, corresponding with what he is.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Now it is certain that in order to receive words,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: we must listen. Hearing is the sense given to enable
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: us to receive the words which are communicated to us.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Hearing is rather a passive than an active sense. Receiving
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and not communicating. Christ being the word which is to
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: be communicated, the soul must be attentive to this word,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: which speaks within it. This is why we are so
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: often exhorted to listen to God, and to be attentive
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: to His voice. Many passages might be quoted. I will
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: be content to mention a few. Hearken unto me, O
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: my people. and give ear unto me, O my nation.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: remnant of the house of Israel. Hearken, O daughter, and consider,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: thy father's house. We must listen to God and be
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: attentive to Him, forgetting ourselves and all self-interest. These two actions,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: or rather passions, for this condition exist. is essentially a
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: passive one, arousing God a desire towards the beauty He
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: has Himself communicated. Outward silence is extremely necessary for the
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: cultivation of inward silence, and it is impossible to acquire
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: inward silence without having a love for silence and solitude.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: God tells us by the mouth of His prophet, I
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: will allure her and bring her into the wilderness Chapter
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: 12 Self-Examination and Confession Self-examination should always precede confession. Those
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: who arrive at this degree should expose themselves to God,
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: who will not fail to enlighten them and to make
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: known to them the nature of their faults. This examination
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: must be conducted in peace and tranquility, expecting more from
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: God than from our own research, the knowledge of our sins.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: When we examine ourselves with an effort, we easily make mistakes.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: We call evil good and good evil, and self-esteem easily
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: deceives us. But when we remain exposed to the searching
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: gaze of God, that divine sun brings to light even
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: the smallest atoms. We must then, for self-examination, abandon ourselves
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: utterly to God. When we are in this degree of prayer,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: God is not slow to reveal to us all the
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: faults we commit. We have no sooner sinned than we
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: feel a burning reproach. It is God Himself who conducts
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: an examination which nothing escapes, and we have only to
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: turn towards God and suffer the pain and the correction
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: which He gives. As this examination by God is continual,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: we can no longer examine ourselves. And if we are
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: faithful to our abandonment to God, we shall soon be
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: better examined by the divine light than we could be
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: by all our own efforts. Experience will make this known.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: One thing which often causes astonishment to the soul is
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: that when it is conscious of a sin and comes
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: to confess it to God, instead of feeling regret or contrition,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: such as it formerly felt, a sweet and gentle love
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: takes possession of it. Not having experienced this before, it
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: supposes that it ought to draw itself out of this condition,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: to make a definite act of contrition. But it does
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: not see that by doing this, it would lose true contrition,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: which is this, intuitive love, infinitely greater than anything it
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: could create for itself. It is a higher action, which
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: includes the others with greater perfection, though these are not
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: possessed distinctly. We should not seek to do anything for
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: ourselves when God acts more excellently in us and for us.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: It is hating sin as God hates it, to hate
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: it in this way. This love, which is the operation
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: of God in the soul, is the purest of all love.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: All we have to do, then, is to remain as
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: we are. Another remarkable thing is that we often forget
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: our faults and find it difficult to remember them. But
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: this must not trouble us for two reasons. The first,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: that this very forgetfulness is a proof that the sin
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: has been atoned for. And it is better to forget
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: all that concerns ourselves, that we may remember God alone.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: The second reason is that God does not fail, whenever
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: confession is needful, to show to the soul its greatest faults.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: For then it is He Himself who examines it. Chapter
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: 13 On Reading Vocal Prayer Requests The proper manner of
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: reading in this degree is, as soon as we feel
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: attracted to meditation, to cease reading and remain at rest.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: The soul is no sooner called to inward silence than
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: it should cease to utter vocal prayers, saying but little
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: at any time. And when it does say them, if
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: it finds any difficulty or feels itself drawn to silence,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: it should remain silent. and make no effort to pray,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: leaving itself to the guidance of the Spirit of God.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: The soul will find that it cannot, as formerly, present
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: definite requests to God. This need not surprise it, for
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: it is now that the Spirit maketh intercession for the saints,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: according to the will of God. The Spirit also helpeth
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: for as we ought. but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered. We must
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: second the designs of God, which are to strip the
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: soul of its own works, to substitute His in their place.
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: Let Him work then, and bind yourself to nothing of
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: your own, however good it may appear to you. It
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: cannot be so, if it comes in the way of
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: God's will for you. The will of God is preferable
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: to all other good. Seek not your own interests, but
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: live by abandonment and by faith. It is here that
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: faith begins to operate wonderfully in the soul. Chapter 14
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: The Faults Committed in This Degree Distractions Temptations the course
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: to be pursued respecting them. As soon as we fall
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: into fault, or have wandered, we must turn again within ourselves,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: because this fault, having turned us from God, we should
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: as soon as possible turn towards him, and suffer the
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: penitence which he himself will give. It is of great
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: importance that we should not be anxious about these faults.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: because the anxiety only springs from a secret pride and
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: a love of our own excellence. We are troubled at
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: feeling what we are. If we become discouraged, we shall
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: grow weaker yet, and reflection upon our faults produces a
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: vexation which is worse than the sin itself. A truly
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: humble soul does not marvel at its weakness. And the
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: more it perceives its wretchedness, the more it abandons itself
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: to God and seeks to remain near to Him, knowing
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: how deeply it needs His help. God's own word to
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: us is, I will instruct thee and teach thee in
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: with mine eye. In distractions or temptations, Instead of combating
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: them directly, which would only serve to augment them and
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: to wean us from God, with whom alone we ought
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: to be occupied, we should simply turn away from them
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: and draw nearer to God, as a little child, seeing
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: a fierce animal approaching it, would not stay to fight it,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: nor even to look at it, but would run for
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: shelter to its mother's arms, where it would be safe.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: God is in the midst of her. She shall not
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: be moved. God shall help her, and that right early.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: If we adopt any other course of action, if we
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: attempt to attack our enemies in our weakness, we shall
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: be wounded. Even if we are not entirely defeated, but
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: remaining in the simple presence of God, we find ourselves
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: immediately fortified. This is what David did. He says, Chapter
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Fifteen Prayer and sacrifice explained by the similitude of a perfume.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: Our annihilation in this sacrifice. Solidity and fruitfulness of this
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: prayer as set forth in the Gospel. Prayer ought to
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: be both petition and sacrifice. Prayer, according to the testimony
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: of St. John, is an incense whose perfume rises to God.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: Therefore it is said in the Revelation that an angel
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: held a censer which contained the incense of the prayers
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: of the saints. Prayer is an outpouring of the heart
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: in the presence of God. I have poured out my
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: soul before the Lord, said the mother of Samuel. Thus
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: the prayers of the Magi at the feet of the
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: infant Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem were signified by
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: the incense which they offered. Prayer is the heat of love,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: which melts and dissolves the soul, and carries it to God.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: In proportion as it melts, it gives out its odor,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: and this odor comes from the love which burns it.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: This is what the bride meant when she said, While
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: the smell thereof. The table is the heart. When God
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: is there, and we are kept near to Him, in
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: His presence, this presence of God melts and dissolves the
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: hardness of our hearts, and as they melt, they give
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: forth their perfume. Therefore the bridegroom, seeing his bride thus
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: melted by the speech of her beloved, says, Who is
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: this that cometh out of the wilderness, perfumed with myrrh
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: and frankincense? Thus the soul rises up towards its God,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: but in order to this, it must suffer itself to
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: be destroyed and annihilated by the force of love. This
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: is a state of sacrifice essential to the Christian religion,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: by which the soul suffers itself to be destroyed and
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: annihilated to render homage to the sovereignty of God. As
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: it is written, the power of the Lord is great.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: and he is honoured of the lowly. And the destruction
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: of our own being confesses the sovereign being of God.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: We must cease to be, so that the Spirit of
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: the Word may be in us. In order that he
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: may come to us, we must yield our life to him,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: and die to self, that he may live in us,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: and that we, being dead, our life may be hidden
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: with Christ in God. Come unto me, says God, all
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: my fruits. But how can we be filled with God?
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Only by being emptied of self, and going out of ourselves,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: in order to be lost in him. Now, this can
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: never be brought about, except by our becoming nothing. Nothingness
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: is true prayer, which renders to God honour and This
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: prayer is the prayer of truth. It is worshipping the
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Father in spirit and in truth. In spirit, because we
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: are by it drawn out of our human and carnal action,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: to enter into the purity of the Spirit, who prays
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: in us, and in truth, because the soul is led
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: into the truth of the all of God. and the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: nothing of the creature. There are but these two truths,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: the all and the nothing. All the rest is untruth.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: We can only honour the all of God by our nothingness,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: and we have no sooner become nothing than God, who
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: will not suffer us to be empty, fills us with himself. Oh,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: if all knew the blessings of which come to the
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: soul by this prayer, they would be satisfied with no others.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: It is the pearl of great price. It is the
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: hidden treasure. He who finds it gladly sells all that
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: he has to buy it. It is the well of
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: living water, which springs up into everlasting life. It is
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the practice of the pure maxims of the gospel. Does
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: not Christ himself tell us that the kingdom of God
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: is within us? This kingdom is set up in two ways.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: The first is when God is so thoroughly master of
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: us that nothing resists Him. Then our heart is truly
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: His kingdom. The other way is that by possessing God,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: who is the sovereign Lord, we possess the kingdom of God,
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: which is the height of felicity. And the end for
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: which we were created, as it has been said, to
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: serve God is to reign. The end for which we
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: were created is to enjoy God in this life, and
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: men do not believe it. Section 4 of A Short
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: and Easy Method of Prayer This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Recording by Jordan. A Short Method of
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: Prayer by Madame Guillaume. Translated by A. W. Marston. Chapters
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: 16 and 17. Chapter 16. This state of prayer, not
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: one of idleness, but of noble action, wrought by the
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: Spirit of God and independence upon him, the communication of
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: his life and union. Some people, hearing of the prayer
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: of silence, have wrongly imagined that the soul remains inactive, lifeless,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: and without movement. But the truth is that its action
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: is more noble and more extensive than it ever was
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: before it entered this degree, since it is moved by
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: God himself and acted upon himself by His Spirit. St.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: Paul desires that we should be led by the Spirit
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: of God. I do not say that there must be
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: no action, but that we must act in dependence upon
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: the divine movement. This is admirably set forth by Ezekiel.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: The prophets saw wheels which had the Spirit of life,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: and wherever this Spirit was to go, they went. They
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: went on, or stood, or were lifted up as they
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: were moved, for the spirit of life was in them,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: but they never went back. It should be the same
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: with the soul. It should suffer itself to be moved
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: and guided by the living spirit who is in it,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: following his direction and no other. Now this spirit will
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: never lead it to go backwards, that is, to reflect
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: upon the creature, or to lean upon itself, but always
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: to go forward, pressing continually towards the mark. This action
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: of the soul is a restful action. When it acts
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: of itself, it acts with effort and is therefore more
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: conscious of its action. But when it acts in dependence
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: upon the spirit of grace, its action is so free,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: so easy, so natural that it does not seem to
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: act at all. He brought me forth, also into a
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: As soon as the soul has commenced its course towards
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: its centre, from that moment its action becomes vigorous, that is,
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: its course towards the centre which attracts it, which infinitely
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: surpasses the velocity of any other movement. It is action then,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: but an action which so noble, so peaceful, so tranquil,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: that it seems to the soul as though it were
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: not acting at all, because it rests, as it were, naturally.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: When a wheel is only turning with a moderate speed,
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: it can easily be distinguished, but when it goes quickly,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: no part of it can be distinctly seen. So the
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: soul which remains at rest in God has an action
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: entirely infinitely noble and exalted, yet very peaceful. The greater
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: its peace, the greater is its velocity, because it is
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: abandoned to the Spirit, who moves it and makes it act.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: This Spirit is God Himself, who draws us, and in
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: drawing makes us run to Him. As the bride well
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: knew when she said, Draw me. we will run. Draw me,
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: O my divine centre, by my inmost heart. My powers
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: and my sensibilities will run at thy attraction. This attraction
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: alone is a balm which heals me, and a perfume
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: which draws. We will run, she says, because of the
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: savour of thy good ointments. This attracting virtue is very strong,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: but the soul follows it very gladly, and as it
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: is equally strong and sweet, it attracts by its strength
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: and delights by its sweetness. The bride says, Draw me,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: we will run. She speaks of herself and to herself.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: Draw me. There is the unity of the object which
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: is attracted. We will run. There is the correspondence of
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: all the powers and sensibilities which follow in the train
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: of the centre of the heart. It is not a
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: question of remaining in idleness, but of acting, independence upon
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: the Spirit of God, who animates us, since it is
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: in Him that we live and move and have our being.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: This calm dependence upon the Spirit of God is absolutely necessary,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: and causes the soul in a short time to attain
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: the simplicity and unity in which it was created. It
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: was created one and simple, like God, in order then
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: to answer to the end of our creation, we must
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: quit the multiplicity of our own actions, to enter into
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: the simplicity and unity of God, in whose image we
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: were created. The Spirit of God is one only, yet manifold,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: and its unity does not prevent its multiplicity. We enter
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: into God's unity when we are united to His Spirit,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: because then we have the same Spirit that He has,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: and we are multiplied outwardly as regards His dispositions, without
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: leaving the unity. So that, as God acts infinitely, and
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: we are of one spirit with Him, we act much
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: more than we could do by our own action. We
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: must suffer ourselves to be guided by wisdom. This wisdom
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: is more moving than any motion. Let us, then, remain
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: in dependence upon His action, and our action will be
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: vigorous indeed. All things were made by the Word, and
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: without Him was not anything made that was made. God,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: in creating us, created us in His image, after His likeness.
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: He gave to us the Spirit of the Word, by
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the breath of life, which He breathed into us when
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: we were created in the image of God, by the
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: participation of the life of the Word, who is the
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: image of His Father, Now this life is one, simple, pure,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: intimate and fruitful. The devil, having disfigured this beautiful image,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: it became necessary that this word, whose breath had been
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: breathed into us at our creation, should come to restore it.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: It is necessary that it should be he, because he
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: is the image of the Father, and a defaced image
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: cannot be repaired by its own action, but by the
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: action of him who seeks to restore it. Our action, then,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: should be to put ourselves into a position to suffer
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: the action of God, and to allow the Word to
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: retrace His image in us. An image, if it could move,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: would by its movement prevent the sculptors perfecting it. Every
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: movement of our own hinders the work of the heavenly
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: sculptor and produces false features. We must then remain silent
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: and only move as He moves us. Jesus Christ has
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: life in Himself and He must communicate life to all
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: who live. That this action is the most noble cannot
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: be denied. Things are only of value as the principle
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: in which they originate is noble. Grand and elevated. Actions
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: committed by a divine principle are divine actions, whereas the
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: actions of the creature, however good they may appear, are
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: human actions. Or, at best, they are virtuous actions, if
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: they are done with the help of grace. Jesus says
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: that he has life in himself. All other beings have
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: but a borrowed life, but the Word has life in Himself.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: And as He is communicative, He desires to communicate this
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: life to men. We must then give place to this life,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: that it may flow in us, which can only be
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: done by evacuation and the loss of the life of
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: Adam and of our own action, as St. Paul assures us.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: If any man be in Christ, He is a new creature.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: Old things have passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: This can only be brought about by the death of
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: ourselves and of our own action, that the action of
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: God may be substituted for it. We do not profess, then,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: to be without action, but only to act in dependence
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: upon the Spirit of God, suffering His action to take
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: the place of our own. Jesus shows us this in
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: the Gospel. Martha did good things, but because she did
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: them of her own spirit, Christ reproved her for them.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: The spirit of man is turbulent and boisterous, therefore it
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: does little, though it appears to do much. Martha, Martha,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: said Jesus. Thou art careful and troubled about many things,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: What had she chosen, this Magdalene? Peace, tranquillity, and repose.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: She apparently ceased to act. that she might be moved
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: by the Spirit of God, she ceased to live, that
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: Christ might live in her. This is why it is
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: so necessary to renounce ourselves and all our own works
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: to follow Jesus. For we cannot follow Him unless we
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: are animated with His Spirit. In order that the Spirit
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: of Christ may dwell in us, our own spirit must
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: give place to Him. He that is joined to the Lord,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: says St. Paul, is one spirit. It is good for
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: me to draw near to God. I have put my
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: trust in the Lord God. What is this drawing near?
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: It is the beginning of union. Union has its beginning,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: its continuation, its completion, and its consummation. The commencement of
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: union is an inclination towards God. When the soul is
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: converted in the manner I have described, it has an
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: inclination to its center and a strong tendency to union.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: This tendency is the commencement. Then it adheres, which happens
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: when it approaches nearer to God. Then it is united
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: to Him and finally becomes one with Him. that is,
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: because one's spirit with him, and it is then that
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: this spirit, which proceeded from God, returns to him as
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: its end. It is, then, necessary that we should enter
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: this way, which is the divine motion and the Spirit
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. St. Paul says, If any man have
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: To be Christ's then, we must suffer ourselves to be
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: filled with His Spirit, and emptied of our own. Our
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: hearts must be evacuated. St. Paul, in the same place,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: proves to us the necessity of this divine motion. He says,
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: The divinely imparted Spirit is the Spirit of divine Sonship. Therefore,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: the same Apostle continues, Ye have not received the spirit
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. This spirit
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: is no other than the Spirit of Christ, by whom
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: we participate in his sonship. And this spirit itself beareth
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: As soon as the soul leaves itself to be moved
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: by the Spirit of God, it experiences the witness of
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: this divine sonship, and this witness serves the more to
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: increase its joy, and it makes it know that it
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: is called to the liberty of the sons of God,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: and that the spirit it has received is not a
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: spirit of bondage, but of liberty. The Spirit of the
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: Divine Motion This is conclusive. if we do not know
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: what to pray for, nor how to ask as we
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: ought for what is necessary for us, and if it
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: is needful that the Spirit who is in us, to
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: whose motion we abandon ourselves, should ask it for us,
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: ought we not to leave Him to do it? He
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: does it with groanings which cannot be uttered. This Spirit
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: is the Spirit of the Word, who is always heard,
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: as he says himself, I know that thou hearest me always.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: If we leave it to the spirit within us to
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: ask and to pray, we shall always be answered. Why so?
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: O great apostle, mystic teacher, so deeply taught in the
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: inner life, teach us why. It is, he adds, because
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints,
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: according to the will of God. That is to say,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: this Spirit only asks that which it is God's will
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: to give. It is God's will that we should be saved,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: and that we should be perfect. He asks, then, for
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: all that is necessary to our perfection. Why, after this,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: should we be burdened with superfluous cares, and be wearied
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: in the greatness of our way, without ever saying, There
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: is no hope in ourselves, and therefore resting in God.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: God himself invites us to cast all care upon him,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: and he complains, in inconceivable goodness, that we employ our strength,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: our riches and our treasure, in countless exterior things. although
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: there is so little joy to be found in them all.
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread,
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: let your soul delight itself in fatness. Oh, if it
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: were known what happiness there is in thus hearkening unto God!
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: and how the soul is strengthened by it. All flesh
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: must be silent before the Lord. All self-effort must cease
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: when He appears. In order still further to induce us
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: to abandon ourselves to Him without reserve, God assures us
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: that we need fear nothing from such abandonment, because He
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: has a special individual care over each of us. He says,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: she may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Ah,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: words full of consolation! Who, on hearing them, can fear
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: to abandon himself utterly to the guidance of God? CHAPTER XVII.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: DISTINCTION BETWEEN EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR ACTIONS. THOSE OF THE SOUL
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: IN THIS CONDITION ARE INTERIOR, BUT HABITUAL. CONTINUED, DIRECT, PROFOUND,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: SIMPLE AND IMPERCEPTABLE. BEING A CONTINUAL SINKING IN THE OCEAN
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: OF DIVINITY. SIMILITUDE OF A VESSEL. HOW TO ACT IN
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: THE ABSENCE OF SENSIBLE SUPPORTS. The actions of men are
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: either exterior or interior. The exterior are those which appear
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: outwardly and have a sensible object, possessing neither good nor
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: evil qualities, excepting as they receive them from the interior
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: principle in which they originate. It is not of these
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: that I intend to speak, but only of interior actions,
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: which are those actions of the soul, by which it
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: applies itself inwardly to some object or turns away from
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: some other. When being applied to God, I desire to
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: commit an action of a different nature from those which
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: He would prompt. I turn away from God, and I
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: turn towards created things, more or less according to the
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: strength or weakness of my action. If Being turned towards
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: the creature, I wish to return to God. I must
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: commit the action of turning away from the creature and
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: turning towards God. And thus, the more perfect is this action,
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: the more complete will be the conversion. Until I am
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: perfectly converted, I need several actions to turn me towards God.
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: Some are done all at once, others gradually. but my
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: action ought to lead me to turn to God, employing
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: all the strength of my soul for Him. As it
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: is written, Therefore even now, saith the Lord, turn ye
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: even to me with all your heart. Thou shalt return
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart and
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: with all thy soul. God only asks for our heart.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: My son, give me thy heart. and let thine eyes
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: observe my ways. To give the heart to God is
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: to have its gaze, its strength and its vigour, all
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: centred in Him, to follow His will. We must then,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: after we have applied to God, remain always turned towards Him. But,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: as the mind of man is weak, and the soul weak,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: being accustomed to turn towards earthly things, is easily turned
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: away from God, it must, as soon as it perceives
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: that it is turned towards outward things, resume its former
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: position in God by a simple act of return to Him.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: And as several repeated acts form a habit, the soul
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: contracts a habit of conversion, and from action it passes
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: to a habitual condition, The soul, then, must not seek
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: by means of any efforts or works of its own
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: to come near to God. This is seeking to perform
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: one action by means of others, instead of, by a
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: simple action, remaining attached to God alone. If we believe
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: that we must commit no actions, we are mistaken, for
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: we are always acting, but each one must act according
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: to his degree. I will endeavor to make this point clear, as,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: for want of understanding it, it presents a difficulty to
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: many Christians. There are passing and distinct actions, and continued actions,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: direct acts, and reflected acts. All cannot perform the first,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: and all are not in a condition to perform the others.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: The first actions should be committed by those who are
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: turned away from God. They ought to turn to Him
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: by a distinct action, more or less strong according to
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: their distance from Him. By a continued action. I understand
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: that by which the soul is completely turned towards its
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: God by a direct action, which it does not renew,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: unless it has been interrupted, but which exists. The soul,
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: being altogether turned in this way, is in love and
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: remains there, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Then the soul may be said to be in a
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: habitual act, resting even in this action, but its rest
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: is not idle, for it has an action always in force, viz.,
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: a gentle sinking in God, in which God attracts it
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: more and more strongly, and following this attraction, and resting
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: in love, it sinks more and more in this love,
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: and has an action infinitely stronger, more vigorous and more
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: prompt than that action which forms only the return. Now,
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: the soul which is in this profound and strong action,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: being turned towards its God, does not perceive this action,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: because it is direct and not reflex. So that persons
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: in this condition not knowing how rightly to describe it,
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: say that they have no action. But they are mistaken.
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: They were never more active. It would be better to
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: say they do not distinguish any action than that they
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: do not commit any. The soul itself does not act
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: of itself, I admit, but it is drawn, and it
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: follows the attracting power. Love is the weight which sinks it,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: as a person who falls in the sea sinks, and
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: would sink to infinity if the sea were infinite, and
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: without perceiving it sinking. It would sink to the most
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: profound depths with an incredible speed. It is then incorrect
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: to say that no actions are committed. All commit actions,
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: but all do not commit them in the same manner,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: and the abuse arises from the fact that those who
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: know that action is inevitable wish it to be distinct
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: and sensible. But sensible action is for beginners, and the
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: other for those more advanced. To stop with the first
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: would be to deprive ourselves of the last, and to
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: wish to commit the last before having passed the first
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: would be an equal abuse. Everything must be done in
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: its season. Each state has its commencement, its progress, and
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: its end. There is no act which has not its beginning.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: At first we must work with effort, but afterwards we
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: enjoy the fruit of our labor. When a vessel is
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: in the harbor, the sailors have a difficulty in bringing
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: it into the open sea, but once there they easily
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: turn it in the direction in which they wish to navigate.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: So when the soul is in sin, it needs an
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: effort to drag it out. The cords which bind it
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: must be loosened then, by means of strong and vigorous action.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: It must be drawn within itself, little by little, leaving
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: the harbour, and being turned within, which is the place
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: to which its voyage should be directed. When the vessel
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: is thus turned, in proportion as it advances in the sea.
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: It leaves the land behind it, and the further it
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: goes from the land, the less effort is needed to
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: carry it along. At last it begins to sail gently,
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: and the vessel goes on so rapidly that the oars
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: become useless. What does the pilot do then? He is
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: contented with spreading the sails and sitting at the helm.
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: Spreading the sails is simply laying ourselves before God to
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: be moved by His Spirit. Sitting at the helm is
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: preventing our heart from leaving the right way, rowing it
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: gently and leading it according to the movement of the
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: Spirit of God, who gradually takes possession of it, as
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: the wind gradually fills the sails and impels the vessel forward.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: So long as the vessel sails before the wind, THE
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: MARINERS REST FROM THEIR LABOUR. THEY VOYAGE FARTHER IN AN
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: HOUR WHILE THEY REST IN THIS MANNER, AND LEAVE THE
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: SHIP TO BE CARRIED ALONG BY THE WIND, THAN THEY
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: WOULD IN A MUCH LONGER TIME BY THEIR OWN EFFORTS.
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: AND IF THEY WISH TO ROW, BESIDES THE FATIGUE WHICH
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: WOULD RESULT FROM IT, THEIR LABOUR WOULD BE USELESS, AND
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: WOULD ONLY SERVE TO RETARD THE VESSEL. This is the
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: conduct we should pursue in our inner life, and in
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: acting thus, we shall advance more in a short time
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: by the divine guidance than we ever could do by
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: our own efforts. If only you will try this way,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: you will find it the easiest possible. When the wind
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: is contrary, if the wind and the tempest are violent,
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: the anchor must be thrown in the sea to stop
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: the vessel. This anchor is trust in God, and hope
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: in his goodness, waiting in patience for the tempest to cease,
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: and for a favorable wind to return, as David did.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: I waited patiently for the Lord, he says, and he
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: inclined unto me. End of section 4 CHAPTER XVIII. THE
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: DRINESS OF PREACHERS. and the various evils which arise from
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: their failing to teach heart prayer. Exhortation to pastors to
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: lead people towards this form of prayer, without amusing them
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: with studied and methodical devotion. If all those who are
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: working for the conquest of souls, sought to win them
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer,
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: and to the inner life, they would see many and
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: the heart is won, Other defects are easily corrected. This
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: is why God particularly asks for the heart. By this
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: means alone would be prevented the drunkenness, blasphemy, lewdness, enmity
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: and robbery which are prevalent in the world. Jesus Christ
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: would reign universally and the church everywhere would be revived.
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: Error only takes possession of the soul in the absence
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: of faith and prayer. If men could be taught to
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: believe simply and to pray, instead of disputing amongst themselves,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: they would be gently led to Christ. Oh, how inestimable
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: is the loss of those who neglect the inner life! Oh,
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: what an account will they have to render to God,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: who have the charge of souls! for not having discovered
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: the hidden treasure to all those whom they serve in
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: the ministry of the word. The excuse is given that
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: there is danger in this way, or that ignorant people
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: are incapable of spiritual things. The oracle of truth assures
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: us that God has hid these things from the wise
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: and prudent, and has revealed them to babes. And what
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: danger can there be in walking in the only true way,
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: which is Jesus Christ, in giving ourselves to Him, looking
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: to Him continually, putting all our trust in His grace,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: and tending, with all the forces of our souls, to
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: His pure love? Far from the simple ones being incapable
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: of this perfection, they are the most suitable for it,
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: because they are more docile, more humble and more innocent,
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: and as they do not reason, they are not so
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: attached to their own light. Having no science, they more
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: readily suffer themselves to be guided by the Spirit of God,
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: while others who are blind in their own sufficiency resist
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: the divine inspiration. God tells us, too, that it is
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: to the simple He gives understanding by the entrance of
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: his word. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: wise the simple. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: brought low, and he helped me. O ye who have
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: the oversight of souls! See that you do not prevent
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 1: the little ones from going to Christ. His words to
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: his disciples were, Suffer little children to come unto me,
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: of God. Jesus only said this to his disciples, because
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: they wished to keep the children away from him. Often
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: the remedy is applied to the body when the disease
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: is at the heart. The reason why we have so
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: little success in seeking to reform men is that we
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: direct our efforts to the outside and all that we
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: can do there soon passes off. But if we went
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: to give them first the key of the interior the
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: outside would be reformed at once with a natural facility.
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: And this is very easy. To teach them to seek
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: God in their heart to think of Him, to return
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: to Him when they find they have turned away, to
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: do all and suffer all for the sake of pleasing Him.
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: This is to direct them to the source of all grace,
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: and to make them find there all that is necessary
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: for their sanctification. O you who serve souls, I conjure
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: you to put them first of all into this way,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: which is Jesus Christ. And it is He who conjures
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: you to do this, by the blood He has shed
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: for the souls He confides to your care. Speak to
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: the heart of Jerusalem, O dispensers of His grace, preachers
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: of His word, ministers of His sacraments. Establish His kingdom,
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: and in order to establish it truly, make it reign
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: over hearts. For as it is the heart alone which
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: can oppose His empire, IT IS BY THE SUBJECTION OF
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: THE HEART THAT HIS SOVEREIGNTY IS MOST HONORED. ALAS, WE
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: SEEK TO MAKE STUDIED PRAYERS, AND BY WISHING TO ARRANGE
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: THEM TOO MUCH WE RENDER THEM IMPOSSIBLE. WE HAVE ALIENATED
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: CHILDREN FROM THE BEST OF FATHERS IN SEEKING TO TEACH
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: THEM A POLISHED LANGUAGE. GO, POOR CHILDREN, AND SPEAK TO
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER IN YOUR NATURAL LANGUAGE however uncultivated it
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: may be. It is not so to him. A father
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: loves best the speech which is put in disorder by
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: love and respect, because he sees that it comes from
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: the heart. It is more to him than a dry harangue,
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: vain and unfruitful, though well studied. O how certain glances
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: of love charm and ravish him! They express infinitely more
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: than all language and reason. By wishing to teach how
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: to love, love himself with method, much of this love
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: has been lost. Oh, it is not necessary to teach
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: the art of loving. The language of love is barbarous
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: to him who does not love, and we cannot learn
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: to love God better than by loving him. The Spirit
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: of God does not need our arrangements. he takes shepherds
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: at his pleasure to make them prophets. And far from
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: closing the palace of prayer to any, as it is imagined,
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: he leaves the doors open to all, and wisdom is
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 1: ordered to cry in the public places. Whoso is simple,
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: let him turn in hither. As for him that wanteth understanding,
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: she saith to him, Come and eat of my bread.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Did
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: not Christ thank his Father that he had hidden these
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: things from the wise and prudent, and had revealed them
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: to babes? Chapter 19 After the preceding ways, there remains
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: an afterway, preparatory to divine union. in which wisdom and
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: justice make the passive purification of the soul, all which
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: is treated in detail in the following treatise, entitled Spiritual Torrents.
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: It is impossible to attain divine union by the way
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: of meditation alone, or even by the affections, or by
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: any luminous or understood prayer. There are several reasons. These
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: are principle. First, according to Scripture, no man shall see
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: God and live. Now, all discursive exercises of prayer, or
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: even of active contemplation regarded as an end and not
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: as preparation for the passive, are exercises of life by
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: which we cannot see God, that is, become united to Him.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: All that is of man, and of his own industry,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: however noble and elevated it may be, must die. Saint
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: John tells us that there was silence in heaven. Heaven
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: represents the depths and centre of the soul, where all
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: must be in silence when the majesty of God appears.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: All that belongs to our own efforts, or to ourselves
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: in any way, must be destroyed. because nothing is opposed
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: to God but appropriation, and all the malignity of man
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: is in this appropriation, which is the source of his evil,
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: so that the more a soul loses its appropriation, the
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: more it becomes pure. Secondly, in order to unite two
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: things so opposed as the purity of God and the
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: impurity of the creature, the simplicity of God and the
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: multiplicity of the creature. God must operate alone, for this
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: can never be done by the effort of the creature,
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: since two things cannot be united, unless there is some
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: relation or resemblance between them, as an impure metal would
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: never unite with one that was pure and refined. What
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: does God do then? He sends before him his own wisdom.
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: as fire will be sent upon the earth to consume
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: by its activity all the impurity that is there. Fire
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: consumes all things, and nothing resists its activity. It is
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: the same with wisdom. It consumes all impurity in the
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: creature to prepare him for divine union. This impurity, so
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: opposed to union, is appropriation and activity. Appropriation, because it
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: is the source of the real impurity, which can never
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: be united to essential purity, as the sun's rays may
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: touch the mud, but cannot unite with it. Activity, because God,
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: being in an infinite repose, in order that the soul
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: may be united to him, it must participate in his repose,
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: without which there can be no union, because of the dissemblance.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: And to unite two things... They must be in a
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: proportionate rest. It is for this reason that the soul
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: can only attain divine union by the rest of its will,
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: and it can only be united to God when it
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: is in a central rest and in the purity of
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: its creation. To purify the soul, God makes use of
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: wisdom as fire is used for the purification of gold.
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: It is certain that gold can only be purified by fire,
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: which gradually consumes all that is earthly and foreign, and
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: separates it from the gold. It is not sufficient that
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: the earth should be changed into gold. It is necessary
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: that the fire should melt and dissolve it, to remove
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: from it all that is earthly. And this gold is
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: put in the fire so many times that it loses
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: its impurity. and all necessity of its purification. Then it
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: is fit to be employed in the most excellent workmanship. And,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: if this gold is impure in the end, it is
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: because it has contracted fresh defilement by coming in contact
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: with other bodies. But this impurity is only superficial, and
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: does not prevent its being used, whereas its former impurity
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: was hidden within it, and as it were, identified with
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: its nature. In addition to this, you will remark that
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: gold of an inferior degree of purity cannot mix with
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: that of a superior purity. the one must contract the
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: impurity of the other or else impart its own purity
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: to it put a refined gold with an unrefined one
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: what can the goldsmith ever do with it he will
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: have all the impurity taken from the second piece that
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: it may be able to mix with the first This
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: is what St. Paul tells us, that the fire shall
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: try every man's work of what sort it is. He
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: adds that, if any man's work should be found to
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: deserve burning, he should be saved, so as by fire.
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: That means that, though there are some works which are
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: good and which God receives, yet so that he who
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: has done them may be pure, they too must pass
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: through the fire, in order that all appropriation that is,
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: all that was his own, may be taken from them.
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: God will judge our righteousness because, by the deeds of
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: the law, there shall no flesh be justified, but by
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: the righteousness of God, which is by faith. This being understood,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: I say that, in order that man may be united
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: to his God, wisdom and divine justice, like a pitiless,
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: and devouring fire, must take from him all appropriation, all
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: that is terrestrial, carnal, and of his own activity. And
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: having taken all this from him, they must unite him
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: to God. This is never brought about by the labors
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: of the creature. On the contrary, it even causes him regret, because,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: as I have said, man so loves what is his own,
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: and is so fearful of its destruction, that if God
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: did not accomplish it himself, and by his own authority,
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: man would never consent to it. It will be objected
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: to this, that God never deprives man of his liberty,
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: and that therefore he can always resist God, for which
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: reason I ought not to say that God acts absolutely
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: without the consent of man. In explanation, I say, that
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: it is sufficient that man should give a passive consent,
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: that he may have entire and full liberty, because, having
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: at the beginning given himself to God, that he may
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: do as he will, both with him and in him,
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: he gave from that time an active and general assent
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: to all that God might do. But when God destroys... burns,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: and purifies, the soul does not see that all this
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: is for its advantage. It rather believes the contrary, and
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: as at first the fire seems to tarnish the gold,
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: so this operation seems to despoil the soul of its purity.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: So that, if an active and explicit consent were required,
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: the soul would find difficulty in giving it, and would
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: often not give it, All that it does is to
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: remain in a passive contentment, enduring the operation as well
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: as it can, being neither able nor willing to prevent it.
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: God then so purifies this soul of all natural, distinct,
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: and perceived operations that at last he makes it more
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: and more conformed to himself, and then uniformed. raising the
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: passive capacity of the creature, enlarging it and ennobling it,
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: though in a hidden and unperceived manner, which is termed mystical.
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: But in all these operations, the soul must concur passively,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: and in proportion as the working of God becomes stronger,
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: the soul must continually yield to Him, until He absorbs
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: it altogether. We do not say then, as some assert,
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: that there must be no action, since, on the contrary,
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: this is the door, but only that we must not
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: remain in it, seeing that man should tend towards the
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: perfection of his end, and that he can never reach
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: it without quitting the first means, which, though they were
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: necessary to introduce him into the way, would greatly hinder
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: him afterwards, if he attached himself obstinately to them. This
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: is what Paul said, I forget those things which are behind,
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: and reach forth unto those things which are before. I
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: press toward the mark. Should we not consider a person
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: destitute of reason, who, after undertaking a journey, stopped at
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: the first inn, because he was assured that several had
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: passed it, that a few had lodged there, and that
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: the landlord lived there? What the soul is required to do, then,
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: is to advance towards its end, to take the shortest road,
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: not to stop at the first point, and following the
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: advice of St. Paul, to suffer itself to be led
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: by the Spirit of God, who will lead it to
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: the end for which it was created, which is the
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: enjoyment of God. It is well known that the sovereign
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: good is God. that essential blessedness consists in union with God,
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 1: and that this union cannot be the result of our
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: own efforts, since God only communicates Himself to the soul
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: according to its capacity. We cannot be united to God
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: without passivity and simplicity, and this union being bliss, the
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: way which leads to it, must be the best, and
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: there can be no risk in walking in it. This
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: way is not dangerous. If it were, Christ would not
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: have represented it as the most perfect and necessary of
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: all ways. All can walk in it, and as all
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: are called to blessedness, all are called to the enjoyment
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: of God, both in this life and in that which
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: is to come, since the enjoyment of God is blessedness.
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: I say the enjoyment of God Himself. not of His gifts,
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: which can never impart essential blessedness, not being able fully
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: to satisfy the soul, which is so constituted that even
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: the richest gifts of God cannot thoroughly content it. The
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: desire of God is to give Himself to us according
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: to the capacity with which He has endowed us, and
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: yet we fear to leave ourselves to God. We fear
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: to possess Him and to be prepared for divine union.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: You say we must not bring ourselves to this condition.
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: I agree to that, but I say too that no
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: one ever could bring himself to it, since no man
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: could ever unite himself to God by his own efforts,
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: and God Himself must do the work. You say that
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: some pretend to have attained it, I say that this
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: state cannot be feigned, any more than a man dying
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: of hunger can for any length of time pretend to
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: be satisfied. It will soon be known whether or no
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: men have attained this end. Since then, none can arrive
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: at the end unless he be brought there. It is
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: not a question of introducing people to it, but of
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 1: showing them the way which leads to it, and begging
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: them not to rest in those practices which must be
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: relinquished at God's command. Would it not be cruelty to
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: show a fountain to a thirsty man, and then hold
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: him bound, and prevent his going to it, leaving him
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: to die of thirst? That is what is being done now.
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: Let us all be agreed, both as to the way
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: and the end. The way has its commencement, its progress,
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: and its terminus. The more we advance towards the terminus,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: the further we go from the commencement, and it is
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 1: impossible to reach the terminus, but by constantly going farther
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: from the starting point, being unable to go from one
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: place to another, without passing through all that comes between them,
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: this is incontestable. O how blind are the majority of
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: men who pride themselves upon their learning and talent! O Lord,
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: how true it is that Thou hast hidden Thy secrets
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes!
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: End of Section 5 End of A Short and Easy
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: Method of Prayer by Madame Guillaume, translated by A. W. Marston.