September 13
What We Ought Especially To Mortify In Ourselves
Preparation. - To facilitate our victory over the depraved propensities of our heart and will, we should mortify and regulate, first, our imagination, and secondly, our desires and affections. The fruit of this meditation will consist in our learning to keep recollected during mental prayer and our spiritual exercises, by endeavoring to seek God alone therein by means of a lively faith and a sincere love for Him. “Seek the Lord, seek His face evermore” (Ps. 104. 4).
I. We Should Mortify And Regulate Our Imagination
The imagination, says St. Thomas, is, as it were, the treasure or reservoir of the images perceived by the senses. It is, therefore, an inferior faculty which places us in communication with external objects by means of our senses. Hence how great is the injury it can do us, if we neglect to regulate, repress and restrain it.
Is it not, in fact, the ordinary source of impure, vain and sensual thoughts, and of distractions at prayer? At one time, it shows under a deceitful light what pleases our corrupt nature, and draws the applause of the world; at another, it frightens us be enlarging the obstacles or difficulties of virtue. If we are sick, it exaggerates our pains. If we are reproved or reprimanded, it increases our confusion. If we have to do something difficult or disagreeable to us, it depicts it in the darkest colors and makes it appear impossible for us. It is, therefore, highly important to rule over this faculty, to subject it to reason, obedience and faith.
Let us, then, deprive it of hurtful and useless objects by mortifying our senses, especially our sight and hearing. Let us keep it busy with holy and pious things, such as, the mysteries of the life and death of Jesus, Mary and the saints. If it becomes importunate or difficult of restraint, let us, without directly combating it, make a diversion, by withdrawing ourselves into our inmost heart and uniting ourselves to God by prayer and confidence, or else let us have recourse to some pious reading to prepare ourselves for mental prayer.
Do we act thus? Are we not the slave of our imagination? Do we not take it for our guide, instead of following our judgment, common sense and supernatural principles? Let us often represent to ourselves the grand subjects that ought to occupy the mind of a Christian, such as, death, judgement, hell and heaven. Let us frequently gaze on the crucifix, so as to engrave it deeply in our soul and make it the rule of our life. We shall thus escape the dangerous snares of a too lively and too little mortified imagination.
O Jesus, deign to teach me to be recollected and to live always in Thy holy presence. Recall to me the mysteries best adapted to keep up my attention. I am resolved often to represent to myself the dust of my grave, the devouring flames of eternal justice, and especially the unspeakable torments of Thy sorrowful Passion, so as to escape the wanderings of my flights of imagination.
II. It Behooves Us To Mortify Our Desires And Affections
As a butterfly flutters from flower to flower, and a bird springs from branch to branch, in like manner our heart, being more or less under the influence of our imagination, goes from one desire to another, and seeks its gratification everywhere, without finding happiness. And who will ever satisfy a heart insatiable for happiness and love? Who else than God, the supreme and eternal Good, for whom alone we have been created?
Hence the sole remedy for the inconstancy and agitation of our heart, is to fix it in God, to fill it with ardor in His service, by causing it to realize how advantageous it is to possess His grace and practice virtue. And if our heart is agitated by useless desires, let us say to it: “What seekest thou? Cannot the divine will satisfy thee, that will which constitutes in heaven the happiness of the angels and saints?” Then let us add with St. Francis de Sales: “My God, Thou alone art sufficient for me; in Thee I find all that my soul needs. I desire but little, and little do I desire that little.”
Our attachments are usually the cause of the multiplicity of desires that worry us. As the ivy clings to every thing in its way, so also our affections take hold of everything that pleases them, without regard to our salvation. Hence it behooves us to watch over our interior, for a single inordinate attachment may ruin us; a small thread of earthly affection is enough to hinder our progress. “Of what use is it for the eagle to have its beak and wings free,” says St. Dorotheus, “if the hunter holds it by one of its talons?” As the bird, whose feathers are pasted together, cannot fly, so our soul bound to the earth by its affections, is incapable of soaring heavenward to God.
The Holy Ghost admonishes us to guard our heart (Prov. 4. 23), for it is so easily enticed by the allurements of the world and its own passions. From the heart proceed life and death; from it flow those generous resolves that lead to holiness, or the sinful propensities that beget reprobates. Let us, therefore, scrutinize all the secret recesses of our interior, and banish therefrom pride, vanity, all self-seeking, love of ease and comfort, and sensuality. Let us replace all these pernicious tendencies by the contrary virtues, especially by humility and mortification, which separates us from ourselves and created objects.
O Jesus, who spent Thy life on earth to fulfill Thy divine mission, and didst not attach Thyself to any thing transitory, enable me to live here below as a traveller and an exile. Through the intercession of Thy Holy Mother, enable me to strive earnestly to acquire interior recollection, so that I may thereby subdue my imagination, regulate my desires and elevate all my affections to the most intimate union with Thy infinite goodness.
