Behold, my dearly beloved Sons, a Method of Mental Prayer, which I have put briefly, to make it easier; for you ought to practise this spiritual exercise with great fidelity every day of your lives.Behold, my dearly beloved Sons, a Method of Mental Prayer, which I have put briefly, to make it easier; for you ought to practise this spiritual exercise with great fidelity every day of your lives.
Prayer, the plenteous and fruitful source of all virtues, will increase charity in your hearts; and this divine love will make you renounce generously all the pleasures of the senses and of the world, and face joyously labours, austerities and mortifications. Prayer will inspire you with the filial fear which you ought to have towards God and which always ensures the flight of sin. Indeed, Prayer ceaselessly reminds us of the presence of that Divine Lord in Whose sight the mountains are as wax in the rays of a summer sun, and before Whom the foundations of the earth tremble and the pillars of the firmament shake with awe. Prayer will make the bright light of the presence of God shine in your minds; it will carry you up to His very Throne, and make you understand that in God alone is true good to be found and possessed, and that God alone deserves to be the object of your desires. Lastly, the delights of Prayer will give to your wills a holy, firm and unshakable hope of attaining eternal happiness by the help of divine grace. You will even taste in anticipation the unspeakable delights which are reserved in heaven for God's faithful servants.
Apply yourselves, then, each day, with holy joy and great care, to Mental Prayer - according to the salutary advice of the Apostle who tells us that we should "pray without ceasing" and never give up.
Have continually before your eyes the example of our glorious Father Saint Dominic; both by day and by night he devoted himself to this holy exercise and reaped from it that fervour of spirit with which he was animated in all his actions. Very often, as you know, in order to pray the more, he deprived himself of sleep, after the example of his Divine Master Who used to pass His nights in Prayer. Be imitators of him, as he was of Jesus Christ, and be like true children who do not want to degenerate from the holy practices of their Father.
Finally, in giving yourselves to the exercise of Prayer, do not forget to recommend to God the advancement of our holy Order and the salvation of my soul. May Our Lord for ever laden you with His blessings.
Your Servant in Jesus,
- Father Nicholas, General
- text taken from A Short Method of Mental Prayer, by Father Niccolò Ridolfi, O.P., 1920