OF NECESSARY PRACTICES FOR ATTAINING TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

 

1. That practice which is alike the most holy, the most general, and the most needful in the spiritual life is the practice of the presence of God. It is the schooling of the soul to find its joy in His Divine Companionship, holding with Him at all times and at every moment humble and loving converse, without set rule or stated method, in all time of our temptation, in all time of our dryness of soul and disrelish of God, yes, and even when we fall into unfaithfulness and actual sin.. 
2. We should apply ourselves unceasingly to this one end, to so rule all actions that they be little acts of communion with God; but they must not be studied, they must come naturally, from the purity and simplicity of the heart.
3. We must do all things thoughtfully and soberly without impetuosity or precipitancy, which denotes a mind undisciplined. We must go about our labors quietly, calmly, and lovingly, entreating Him to prosper the works of our hands; by thus keeping heart and mind fixed on God, we shall bruise the head of the evil one, and beat down his weapons to the ground.
4. When we busied or meditating on spiritual things, even in our time of set devotion, whilst our voice is rising in prayer, we ought as we can, to worship God in the depth of our being, to taste Him though it be in passing, to touch Him as it were by stealth.  Since you cannot but know that God is with you in all you undertake, that He is at the very depth and center of your soul, why should you not thus pause an instant from time to time in your outward business, and even in the act of prayer, to worship Him within your soul, to praise Him, to entreat His aid, to offer Him the service of your heart, and give Him thanks for all His loving-kindnesses and tender-mercies?

 

What offering is there more acceptable to God than thus throughout the day to quit the things of outward sense, and to withdraw to worship Him within the secret places of the soul? Besides by so doing we destroy the love of self, which can subsist only among the things of sense, and of which these times of quiet retirement with God rids us well-nigh unconsciously.

 

In every truth we can render to God no greater or more signal proofs s of our trust and faithfulness, than by thus turning from things created to find our joy, though for a single moment, in the Creator. Yet, think not that I counsel you to disregard completely and forever the outward things that are around us. That is impossible. Prudence, the mother of the virtues must .be your guide. Yet, I am confident, it is a common error among religious persons, to neglect this practice of ceasing for a time that, which they are engaged upon, to worship God in the depth of their soul, and to enjoy the peace of brief communion with Him.  This digression has been long, and yet, it seemed to me, the matter demanded such. Let us return to our subject.

 

5. These our act of worship are to be prompted and guided by faith. We must unfeignedly believe hat God is in very fact within our souls, and that we must worship Him and love Him and serve Him in spirit and in truth; that He sees all, and that unto Him all hearts are open, our own and those of all His creatures; that He is self-existent, whilst it is in Him 'that all His creatures live and move and have their being; that His Perfection is Infinite and Sovereign, and demands the full surrender of ourselves, our souls and bodies.  In simple justice we owe Him all our thoughts, and words and actions. Let us see to it that we pay our debt.
6. Necessity is laid upon us to examine ourselves with diligence to  find out what are the virtues, which we chiefly lack; and which are the hardest for us to acquire; we should seek to learn the sins that do most easily beset us, and the times and occasions, when we do most often fall.  In the time of struggle we ought to have recourse to God with perfect confidence, abiding steadfast in the Presence of His Divine Majesty; in lowly adoration we should tell out before Him, our griefs and our failures, asking Him lovingly for the succor of His grace; and in our weakness we shall find in Him our strength.

­

OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD

 

1.      The Presence of God is an applying of our spirit to God or a realization of God as present which is borne home to us either by imagination or by the understanding.

2.      I have a friend who these forty years past has been practicing through the understanding a realization of the Presence of God. To it he gives many other names; sometimes he calls it simple act, or a clear and distinct knowledge of God; at other times, a view as through a glass, a loving gaze, an inward sense of God; yet again he terms it a waiting on God, a silent converse with Him, a repose in Him, the life and peace of the soul. Still, my friend tells me that all these ways, in which he has expressed his sense of the Presence of God, come to the same thing; and that the Presence fills his soul quite naturally, that it has come so to pass in this way.

3.      He says that by unwearying efforts, by constantly recalling his mind to the Presence of God, a habit has been formed within him of such a nature that, so soon as he us freed from his ordinary labor, and not seldom even when he is engaged thereon, his soul lifts up above all earthly matters, without care or forethought on his part, and dwells as it were firmly stayed on God, as in it’s a centre and place of rest, faith almost always being his companion at such times. Then his sou1's joy is full,-it is what he calls the actual Presence, and includes all other kinds and greatly more besides. Then it is he feels that only God and he are in the World, with Him he holds unbroken converse, asking from- Him the supply of all his needs, and finding in His Presence fullness of joy.

4.      Let us mark well, however that this inter­course with God he holds in the depth of his being; there it is that the soul speaks to God; heart to heart and over the soul thus holding converse there steals a great and profound peace. All that passes without concerns the soul no more than a fire of straw, which the more it flares, the sooner burns itself out; and rarely indeed do the cares of this world ever intrude to trouble the peace that is within.

5.      But to come back to our consideration of the Presence of God, you must know that the tender and loving light of God’s countenance kindles insensibly within the soul, which ardently embraces it, so great and so divine a fire of love to God, that one is perforce compelled to moderate the outward expression of the feelings.

6.      Great would be our surprise if we but knew what converse the soul holds at these times with God, who seems to so delight in this communion, that to the soul, which would fain abide ever with Him, He bestows favors past numbering; and as if He dreaded last the soul should turn again to things of earth, He provides for it abundantly, so that the souls finds in faith a nourishment divine, a joy that has no measure, beyond its utmost thought and desire; and this without a single effort on its part but simple consent.

7.      The Presence of God is thus the life and nourishment of the soul, and with the aid of His grace, it can attain thereunto by diligent use of the means which I will now set out.

 

 

OF MEANS FOR ATTAINING UNTO THE PRESENCE OF GOD

 

1.      The first is a great purity of life; in guarding ourselves with care lest we should do or say or think on anything, which might be displeasing to God; and, when any such thing happens, in taking heed to repent thereof, humbly begging His forgiveness.

2.      The second is a great faithfulness in the practice of His Presence, and in keeping the soul’s gaze fixed on God in faith, calmly, humbly, lovingly, without allowing an entrance to anxious cares and disquietude.

3.      Make it your study, before taking up any task to look to God, be ut only for a moment, as also when you are engaged thereon, and lastly when you have performed the same. And forasmuch as without time and great patience this practice cannot be attained, be not disheartened at your many falls; truly this habit can only be formed with difficulty, yet when it is so formed, how great will be your joy therein!

 

Is it not right that the heart which is the first thing in us to have life, and which has dominion over all the body, should be the first and last to love and worship God, both when we begin and end our actions, be they spiritual or bodily, and generally in all the affairs of life? It is here therefore, in the heart that we ought to strive to make a habit of this gaze on God; but that which is needful to bring the heart to this obedience we must do, as I have already said, quite simple, without strain or study.

4.      Those who set out upon this practice let me counsel to offer up in secret a few words, such as “My God, I am wholly Thine. O God of Love, I love Thee with all my heart. Lord, make my heart even as Thine”; or such other words as love prompts on the instant.  But take heed that your mind wanders not back to the world again; keep it fixed on God alone, so that, thus subdued by the will, it may be constrained to abide with God.

5.       This practice of the Presence of God is somewhat hard at the outset, yet pursued faithfully it works imperceptibly within the soul most marvelous effects; it draws down God’s grace abundantly, and leads the soul insensibly to the ever-present vision of God, loving and beloved, which is the most spiritual and most real, the most free and most life-giving manner of prayer.

6.      Remember that to attain to this state, we must mortify the senses, inasmuch as no soul, which takes delight in earthly things, can find full joy in the presence of God; to be with Him we must leave behind the creature.

 

 

 

Back to Hearts Aflame