“I set the Lord always in my sight, for He is at my right hand that I be not moved.” – Psalm 15:8“I set the Lord always in my sight, for He is at my right hand that I be not moved.” – Psalm 15:8
The first point in the preparation for Mental Prayer is the Presence of God. The more easily to put itself in this Divine Presence, the devout soul should reflect, first of all, upon the importance of what it is going to do in Prayer: it is going to treat with God concerning the things of its salvation, nay more, of the glory of the Divine Majesty; after the example of Moses who retired to the mountain to consult God touching the conduct of the people of Israel. The soul ought, then, to estrange itself carefully from the thought of things unconnected with the Prayer it intends to make. Imitate him who wishes to reflect deeply upon some pressing affair of great importance: he shuts himself up in his room, or in some remote part of the house, darkens the windows, and closes his eyes, so as not to think of anything else except this affair which concerns him so closely. Our Lord says it in the Gospel: “But thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and, having shut the door, pray to thy Father.”
When the soul recollects itself in this manner and enters into itself, the understanding easily conceives a vivid and deep impression of the Presence of God everywhere. Thus, he who is in a church near the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, being supported by faith, firmly believes that Jesus Christ is there really present, that He sees him, knows him, and perceives all the secrets of his heart. Wherever the devout soul be, it can effectually convince itself that God is present, that He sees it and knows it, and that with His Divine Essence He penetrates to the very depths of its being and entirely fills it. This truth is incontestable. Indeed, if God was not present in us, our soul could not subsist; its being would fall into an abyss of nothingness, if God did not preserve it and sustain it by His power; and as this act cannot be separated from Himself, God is really present wherever this act is.
The soul will then convince itself that it is not as intimately united to the body as God is to itself; that fire is not so really contained in red-hot iron as God is in the essence of the soul; that a fish in the sea is not so immersed in the water as the soul is in God, Whose Presence floods it as much interiorly as exteriorly; wherever it be, it will always find God present, for it carries Him in its heart.
The Different Ways of Putting Oneself in the Presence of God
“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy Face? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I descend into hell. Thou art present.” – Psalm 138:7,8
The best way of putting oneself in the Presence of God is to fill oneself with thoughts of faith, to believe firmly that God is present in all things, and that Jesus Christ sees and knows all our thoughts. In acting thus, it will not be necessary for one to make a great effort of the imagination to picture Our Lord in the form and figure He had when He conversed among men; this would cause fatigue and render us unable to pursue our Prayer.* Let the soul then recollect itself, and by an act of lively faith behold God present within it; after which it will easily conceive, by means of another act of faith, the Immensity of God, His sovereign Goodness which communicates itself so liberally to creatures, His infinite Majesty which overspreads the whole universe and before which every created thing appears as a mere nothing.
To facilitate the practice of this act of the Presence of God, we will indicate different ways of making it.
The first way of putting oneself in the Presence of God is to recollect what is taught us by theologians. God unites Himself to all beings by His Power, His Presence and His Essence: by His Power, because He controls and governs all creatures from the first of the Seraphim to the last little worm, and subjects them to His Sovereign Dominion, as a powerful monarch who makes known his authority in the most distant parts of his kingdom, sending delegates everywhere to administer justice; by His Presence, for all things are uncovered before His eyes, just as a king seated on his throne sees the courtiers who are before him; by His Essence, because, being infinite, He is present everywhere, so that the soul finds Him in all the members and in every part of its body.
The second way is to consider the absolute Being of God, on Which in all things all creatures depend, in such sort that without Him no creature could subsist and no man have any good either in the order of nature or in the order of grace, but would fall into a thousand disorders and evils and even into nothingness.
The third way is to consider the Divine Word united to the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ and to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. This point is contained in the advice given by Saint Theresa in an apparition to one of her religious: “We who are in heaven,” she said, “and you who are on earth, should make but one by love and purity; we in heaven by contemplating the Divine Essence, you on earth by adoring the Most Blessed Sacrament, towards Which you ought to behave during your exile as we do here towards the Divine Essence – we in enjoyment, you in suffering.” This way of establishing the Presence of God can easily be practised when one makes the Prayer in church.
The fourth way is to occupy the mind with some mystery concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ, by representing Him as passing before our eyes, and by attentively fixing the eyes of the soul upon His Sacred Person.
The fifth way is to picture Jesus Christ present in all our actions, as a faithful friend whom we consult in all our affairs.
The sixth way is to consider that God resides specially in our heart as in His Temple, or even, as Spouse, in His nuptial bed. J esus Christ Himself suggests to us this thought when, speaking of Saint Gertrude, He says that those who wish to find Him should seek for Him in the heart of this virgin His spouse.
The seventh and last way of being in the Presence of God, the highest and most divine of all, consists in the union of our soul with God brought about by charity, when the soul, touched by the most active and ardent flames of God’s love, is transformed into Him to such an extent that it can speak of nothing else but Him, think of nothing else but Him, and of what concerns His glory, admiring His infinite perfections, and raising itself up by vehement desires to that degree of union with God in which the soul has with Him but one and the same heart, but one and the same spirit, and but one and the same will: Unum cor, unus spiritus, et una voluntas.
An Example of Putting Oneself in the Presence of God
“The eyes of the Lord are far brighter than the sun, beholding round about all the ways of men and the bottom of the deep.” – Sirach 23:28
My Lord and my God Whose infinite Majesty is incomprehensible, I confess that the hindrances and useless occupations of this miserable life make me often forget Thee, albeit Thou art my sovereign good. I live, O my Divine Master, without any recollection, with an absent, vagrant and troubled mind and with a heart set upon the foulness of earth, without thinking of Thee, although Thou for Thy part dost not lose sight of me.
What amazing blindness of heart! Thou seest me without ceasing, and I, nevertheless, do not see Thee; Thou art continually and most intimately present with me, and I – I feel myself to be very far from Thee; Thou residest in my heart, dwelling there by Thy Essence, and I, following the evil inclination of my wild thoughts, am ever flying far from Thee; and whereas the eyes of Thy loving Providence cast their sweet looks upon my soul, my soul, miserable as it is, fixes its regards upon the foolish vanities of creatures, without reflecting on the happiness of enjoying Thy Presence.
Behold me then, most loving Lord; I come into Thy Presence, although most unworthy, with humility and confidence, in order to treat with Thee during the time of this Prayer concerning the means which I ought to take to become truly obedient. My adorable Master, for mercy’s sake turn not Thy looks away from me, but by an excess of Thy infinite Goodness do me the favour of giving me audience during this Prayer. Feelings of lively faith now fill me with Thy Divine Presence, owing to the Immensity of Thy Being, and also to the operation of Thy Divinity, for indeed without Thee my understanding would never have conceived this intimate thought of Thy adorable Presence, nor my will have ever relished it. Since it is Thou Who dost thus call me to Thyself, and Who dost thus sweetly rouse me, I come to Thee, my Lord, to hear Thy voice. My eyes are fixed on Thee, as the eyes of a slave upon those of his master, as the eyes of a little babe on the breast of its mother where it is nourished and where it rests. Most loving Lord, I wish carefully to study Thy divine Countenance, on which depends all my good, and from which I derive life and the understanding to know Thee.
- text taken from A Short Method of Mental Prayer, by Father Niccolò Ridolfi, O.P., 1920