60. What is meant by considerations?
60. What is meant by considerations?
By considerations are meant pious reflections which the mind, aided by the light of faith, produces during the exercise of mental prayer.
61. What does it mean to meditate in the light of faith?
It means to make the truths of faith the rule of our thoughts, judgments, appreciations, and determinations.
62. Why is it necessary to meditate especially in the light of faith?
For two principal reasons:
1. Because faith alone can instruct us infallibly in the things which are important for us to know.
2. Because the light of faith acts at the same time on the intellect, the heart, and the will.
63. Should we, during meditation, neglect the light of reason?
No, because reason is a natural gift with which God favors us to show us our duty.
64. What is the end and purpose of the considerations?
The end we propose to ourselves in the considerations is to know the subject on which we meditate, to penetrate ourselves vividly with it, and to draw practical conclusions from it.
65. Are the considerations, then, very important?
Yes, they are very important, because they produce in us strong convictions, and consequently prepare the way for good resolutions.
66. Can anybody make considerations?
Yes, because even the least cultivated mind can reflect.
67. Are the considerations always made in the same manner?
No, they are made differently, according as the subject of mental prayer is a truth, such as the doctrine that our eternal destination must be either Heaven or Hell, or a fact, such as Our Lord's death on the cross.
68. How should we proceed when the subject of meditation is a truth?
1. We should direct our attention to the proposed truth.
2. We should endeavor to understand its meaning by reflecting on the words, by distinguishing this truth from others, by establishing comparisons, by deducing consequences, by grasping the extent, the necessity, and the advantages of the truth.
3. We should endeavor to discover the lessons which it teaches.
69. What must we do when the truth becomes more evident to our mind?
According as the truth becomes more evident to our mind, we must repeat acts of faith like the following: "O my God, I believe this truth, but increase my faith; penetrate me more deeply with it."
70. Is it useful to study the proposed truth also in the lives of Our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the saints?
Yes, this is very useful, because Our Lord is the Model of all sanctity, and the Blessed Virgin and the saints are the most faithful copies of this Divine Model. We may, for instance, ask ourselves questions like the following: "How did our Savior, the Blessed Virgin and the saints think and act in respect to this truth?" "What difference is there between their conduct and mine?"
71. What else must we do in order to render the proposed truth practical?
We must examine what our conduct has been in the past with regard to this truth, what it is at present, and what it should be hereafter. Questions like the following may be of use here:
"Do I adhere to this teaching?"
"Was it the rule of my appreciations and conduct in the past?"
"Am I at present disposed to take it for the rule of my conduct?"
"What would a lost soul do in this regard if it could come back into life?"
"What would a saint advise me to do?"
"What would I like to have done at the hour of death?"
72. Is it useful to lay special stress on the motives which should induce us to put into practice the maxim or truth on which we meditate?
Yes, this is very useful, because the more deeply we are penetrated with these motives, the more forcibly our will is impelled to adopt energetic resolutions.
73. How should we proceed when the subject of mental prayer is a fact?
1. We should, with our imagination, figure ourselves beholding the scene, place, and persons of the fact, listening to all that is said, and assisting at all that is done.
2. We should endeavor to understand the meaning of all we have heard and seen with our imagination.
3. We should endeavor to discover the lessons which the fact teaches us.
74. What is the manner of meditating when the subject of mental prayer is a virtue?
A virtue being no more than a truth put into practice, the manner of meditating on a virtue is the same as that of meditating on a truth.
75. What dangers must we avoid while making the considerations?
Principally three:
1. Such an application of the mind as would make of meditation a study rather than a prayer.
2. A search after sublime and purely theoretical considerations.
3. Idleness, be it on account of discouragement, disgust, fatigue, or any other cause.
- taken from Catechism of Mental Prayer, by Father Joseph Simler