Remote or Habitual Preparation

28. How is mental prayer divided?

Mental prayer is divided into three parts:

1. The preparation.

2. The body of mental prayer.

3. The conclusion.

29. How can you justify this division?

Mental prayer is rightly compared to a divine audience; there are certain things to be done and observed in every audience. It is necessary:

1. Before the audience, to prepare for it.

2. During the audience, to employ the time thereof in a proper manner.

3. To bring it to a suitable conclusion.

30. How many kinds of preparation are there?

There are three kinds of preparation: the remote or habitual, the proximate, and the immediate.

31 In what does the habitual preparation for mental prayer consist?

The habitual preparation consists in removing the obstacles in our daily life that prevent us from meditating well, thus disposing ourselves favorably for this holy exercise.

32. What are the chief obstacles that prevent us from performing mental prayer well.

Dissipation and faults against silence, attachment to sin, and slavery to the senses and passions.

33. What means should be taken to remove these obstacles?

The following:

1. Recollection and silence.

2. Purity of heart, which consists in abstaining from all sin committed with full deliberation.

3. Exterior and interior mortification.

34. What are the principal acts of the remote preparation that favor mental prayer?

The habitual remembrance of the presence of God, purity of intention, and frequent recourse to ejaculatory prayers.

- taken from Catechism of Mental Prayer, by Father Joseph Simler