Devotio Moderna

The Crucifixion Scene from Matthias Grunewald's "Isenheim Altarpiece." The altarpiece was painted during the second decade of the C16th for the chapel of the Order of St. Anthony at Isenheim, the monastic house of which was a hospital run by the monks. In one of the most horrifying depictions of the Crucifixion in Western art, Grunewald addresses the agonies of the terminally ill by incorporating them within the sufferings of Christ and, therefore, within the divine order of Fall and grace. When opened, the Altarpiece reveals scenes of annunciation, Christ child, and Resurrection (view shown below). The themes of sickness, sin, death, and healing are continued here as elements of memento mori meditation are included within the picture. Thus a green, demonic figure appears behind the head of the cello-playing angel and, in counter-point, the infant Jesus has just been bathed (a symbol of baptism), is wrapped in cloth that recalls the Crucifixion scene, and plays with a string of prayer beads interspersed with fragments of coral (a symbol of Christ's blood). The violent pitiableness of Christ's sufferings express a devotional interest found also in the Devotio Moderna (see below).

The Devotio Moderna and the Imitation of Christ

Devotio Moderna ("modern devotion") refers to a movement for the renewal of the spiritual life that began in Holland during the late C14th and was influential in Germany, France, and parts of Italy. Both Catholic and Protestant reform initiatives reflect the influence of theological emphases found in the Devotio Moderna. These include an appeal to the original simplicity of Christian faith in a "golden age" now evidently lost; a call to clergy for a truly holy life; a valuing of the interior life with a corresponding lack of stress on the Church's institutionalized aids to salvation; criticism of formalized acts of piety together with any naive reliance on the external aspects of religion; an insistence that the knowledge of God lay open to scholar and illiterate peasant alike; a soteriological urgency in the face of both human sinfulness and the ubiquitous reality of death; intense and emotional meditation to the suffering of Christ; an interpretation of the Eucharist that stresses the sacrament as mediator of an intimate relationship with Christ. You should be able to spot roots of these features in both Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux, and also their influence on Erasmus. The classic text of the movement is St. Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ, but the principal founder of the movement was Geert de Groote (1340-84). Groote - who was never ordained priest - became a missionary preacher in the diocese of Utrecht but had his license withdrawn because of the vehemence of his criticisms of ecclesiastical abuses. The Devotio Moderna was successful amongst laity and found institutional expression in the Brethren of the Common Life: associations of laity and non-monastic priests who were called to practice a disciplined life within their existing callings. The monastic form of the movement was found principally amongst the Windesheim Canons, a community founded in 1387 under the direction of Florentius Radewijns (see below).

from Noteworthy Sayings of Master Geert

A man ought never to become anxious over any worldly thing. He who acts upon what he knows deserves to know much more, and he who does not act even upon what he knows deserves to become blinder still.

It is a great thing when a man proves obedient in matters that are contrary and difficult: This is true obedience.

In all things and before all people, seek to humble yourself, especially in the heart but also outwardly before the brothers.

It is the highest of all learning to know that one knows nothing.

The more a man perceives how far short he is of perfection, the closer he is to it.

The beginning of vainglory is to please one's self.

A man never stands better revealed than when he receives praise.

Seek ever to observe and conceive something good about another.

So often as we inordinately desire something beyond God himself, we become unfaithful fornicators, whence the Prophet says: It is good for me to cling to God.

We ought to be vigorous in prayer and not easily brought to a halt. Nor should we imagine that God does not want to hear us; rather, even when we feel put off, we should not despair. The weak-spirited Temptation lurks in everything in this world, even if a man does not perceive it.

The greatest temptation is not to be tempted: When a man discovers in himself something that needs to be cut off, then he is in good standing. When an evil suggestion comes upon you, think what you would ask your companions, and then the devil will stand confused.

Always put more hope in eternal glory than fear in hell.

Let every person beware lest his behavior scandalize others, and so let him study to correct his ways and to conduct himself uprightly everywhere that others may be edified.

With whatever thoughts a man goes to sleep, he will also rise, so it is useful to pray and to read a few psalms on retiring.

Moderate confusion suffered here forestalls eternal confusion before God and all the saints.

Study to please and to fear him alone who truly knows you and all that you are.

Suppose you were to please all and displease God; to what end? Turn your heart therefore away from all creaturely things, even with great force. Turn it so that you may perfectly vanquish yourself, and raise your heart ever on high to God, as the Prophet says: "My eyes are ever upon the Lord" (Ps 122:2).

The Risen Christ from the Isenheim Altarpiece. The Resurrection is represented as healing from bodily torment and sickness: Christ's body is luminously cleansed, his face calm, and a golden light is shed from his wounds.

Ascent from the Land of Unlikeness

After the death of Geert de Groote in 1384, the leadership of the association he founded, the Brethren of the Common Life, was assumed by Florentius Radewijns whose house in Deventer was the setting for the Brethren's first settled establishment. The author of the following extracts, Gerhard Zerbolt (1367-98), joined the Brethren at this early stage, becoming their priest and librarian. Zerbolt's most widely distributed and popular work was his Spiritual Ascensions. This text was regularly promoted by the advocates of the Devotion Moderna and Luther was amongst its readers outside the movement. The selections that follow describe, first, the soul's descent into the "Region of Dissimilitude" and our remembrance of this decline, and second, the place of reading, meditation, and prayer in the service of our spiritual ascent.

from Gerhard Zerbolt's Spiritual Ascensions

1. Five Points Necessary to Make Progress in the Spiritual Life

"Blessed is the man whose help is from you, who has set his heart to ascend from the valley of tears to the place he has appointed" (Ps 83/84:6-7).
I know, O man, that you wish to make your ascent and ardently desire to reach the heights. For you are a noble and rational creature endowed with a capacious soul, and you have therefore a natural desire for ascent and the heights. This natural appetite is surely not to be despised, if it is well ordered, that is, if your desire is to ascend toward the heights of your original dignity, or your longing is to depart from this valley of tears and misery. But to leave from here and ascend there is possible only if you advance in your heart by way of the ascents and steps of the virtues. For you ascend only so much as you advance in your heart. You must therefore dispose your heart to these ascents, not trusting to make the climb on the strength of your own virtue but resting constantly upon the aid of the Almighty and the protection of the God of heaven. If you ascend in this way, your ascent will be praiseworthy. For you are blessed: The name of "man," as one proceeding "manfully," is not inappropriate to you, and you will eventually receive as your reward eternal blessedness and a glory that never ceases.

Here are proposed to you, as you set yourself for your ascent, five points found in these prophetic words, brief and in reverse order but full of meaning. First, where you ought to ascend, that is, the place which the Lord has appointed. This we should rightly understand as the state of natural rectitude in which the Lord once created and placed you. Set your heart, then, to ascend to that place from which it earlier willed to descend.
Second, the place whence you ought to begin your ascent, a place called the "valley of tears." That "valley" should be construed as the overthrowing and impoverishment of your natural dignity. At the bottom now, you ought to return and ascend the mount from which you fell.
Third, how you ought to prepare yourself for the ascent, for you must set your heart for these ascents. Before you begin to ascend, carefully review in your heart the means and exercises needed to reach back. Think through and set your heart upon the best exercises for recovering its lost dignity.
Because this ascent is truly not in the power of the one walking or ascending but in the gift of God, you are advised, fourth, to request the aid and counsel of God, for unless you are accompanied in all things by divine grace you will have no energy of your own.

But lest you be frightened by the difficulty, of this ascent or defeated by its labor and resist again, the reward is promised you when it says "Blessed is the man." If you advance in these ascents of the heart, you will be blessed, here in hope, afterward in fact, here gaining the blessings of the way which consist in the virtues and righteousness, there dwelling in the blessedness of your homeland. Moreover, when you possess the virtues and righteousness, you already have in a certain sense that future blessedness in its, as I should say, source. For just as natural things contain in themselves certain generative and seminal reasons productive of certain effects, so future blessedness and eternal happiness accompany virtue and righteousness.

Briefly recall then whence, how, and why you ought to make this ascent. Once you were established on the high mountain of your natural and primordial dignity, but you willingly fell headlong into a certain low valley. You must therefore leave this valley and ascend once again the mountain from which you fell. But before you begin to climb, erect a ladder in your heart, arrange a certain means of advancing, by which you may better climb out. And while still on the foot or some lower rung of the ladder, about to lose heart as you look up to the top, raise your arms on high to the Lord, who is leaning down over the highest rung of the ladder, and cry out: "Pull me up after you!" Thus you will become blessed and enjoy everlasting beatitude. Now each of these points must be treated individually.

2. The State of Natural and Primordial Dignity in Which God Placed Man at Creation, and the Many Gifts He Conferred upon him

If therefore the Lord has set your heart toward these ascents and called you to make this spiritual climb, if you are able to take up this mental exercise, come to a knowledge first of your descent and fall; then you will know to ascend from the place where you see yourself to have fallen headlong. To perceive how necessary it is for you to turn from this valley of tears and return to the place appointed and ordained for you, carefully note that the Lord God, who created you in his image and likeness, once placed you in such a sublime dignity, on such a high mountain of natural gifts and spiritual graces, that unless you advance toward the essential vision of God, you will hardly be able to ascend at all. Indeed you were placed in a paradise of delights filled inwardly and outwardly with every good thing. Outwardly you enjoyed a pleasant place sweet with delights; inwardly you possessed a full knowledge of things and affections, all in a quiet and peaceful harmony. For our God endowed you most generously with intellectual and cognitive powers, intellect, reason, and sense, so that through your intellect you might know God and perceive immaterial realities, through your reason rightly discern inferior things and refer all to the praise of God, through your exterior senses grasp the presence and particularity of material things, and through your interior sense be attracted by the images and likenesses of things - even in their absence - as an aid to reason.
He also gave the appetitive powers, that is the will, so that you might love God above all and all other things for his sake and in loving refer all things properly to him. He gave the power of concupiscence so that you might hunger for all that is good and desire the highest good above all. In that concupiscent power he placed various delightful affections: the affection of love that might move you of itself and incline you to the good; an affection of joy, through which you might take the highest delight in God and rejoice in a glimpse of his benefits and in reflecting on his works and wonders; and so on. He gave also an irascible power so you might cling the more firmly to God and through which you might indignantly drive away anything that would separate you. Here he also placed your delightful affections, hope and courage, so that you might manfully advance toward the good and proceed in hope.

Behold how much good he bestowed upon you, on what a sublime peak he placed you. Your intellect was illumined like your first parent, and although, as we believe, it did not see God in his essence, it nonetheless gazed upon him with the pure intuition of the mind and at the limits of contemplation. He endowed you with no evil passion or affection, meaning, any that has evil as its object such as hatred, sadness, or some other inner movement, lest there be something that disturbed you from within. Nor were those faculties, powers, or affections ever at odds with themselves; the law of the flesh never assailed the law of the mind. For there was still no corrupted body and therefore no weighed-down soul. He ordered all these faculties in the best possible way; the inferior obeyed the superior without contradiction or even any desire to do otherwise. For sense obeyed reason, and reason the mind; the mind, however, was subject to God alone. The sensible appetites, that is, the concupiscent and irascible faculties, instantly obeyed the will and the rational appetite. There was in the inner man therefore great concord, and whatever the will willed found obedient response in the other powers and lesser affections. The will however did all according to the counsels of the intellect or the dictates of reason. The intellect, in turn, illumined from above by the light of the face of God, knew fully by this natural and gracious illumination what it should do and what it should repudiate. And this kind of peaceful concord and obedient harmony of the powers and affections is called by the saints our original righteousness.

Behold, man, this is your place, the place in which your lord God placed you. This is the state of rectitude in which he created you and toward which he inclined your heart to climb. Look now upon this state of rectitude, still represented in the erect state of your body, even though in your heart, it must be added at once, you have wandered very far away, and must now say with tears: "Our feet are standing with affection in your forecourts, O Jerusalem" (Ps 121/ 122:2).

3. The Valley of Tears to Which Man Descended through the Fall of the First Man, and the Consequent Loss and Disordering of the Powers of the Soul - the First Fall from Our State of Rectitude

You heard, O man, about the place in which the Lord placed you and to which you ought to ascend. See now the valley of tears into which you fell headlong. Alas, our first and proto-parent, raised up with so much glory and honor, failed to understand that he was in a state of honor, and turning away from the precepts of his Creator he transgressed the divine command. He thereby fell grievously, and we in him, for we were all in him by a certain generative force or seminal reason. All of us therefore fell, and as Bernard said, "We fell at once into the slime and landed on rough stones." Thus we became polluted with original guilt, bruised and battered and gravely wounded in all the faculties and powers of a soul once so well disposed. Through that fall and by the just judgment of God, original righteousness was lost, and those powers and affections, fallen from their former state, became at once diminished and disordered, though not altogether destroyed. Inclined now in the very opposite direction, they opposed and fought each other in their every movement and impulse. Thus daily, not to say continuously, you experience - if you are not a totally insensitive creature - that sensuality, that is, the concupiscent and irascible appetites rebel against the will, and the will repeatedly in turn, though not always, against reason.
Those powers and affections consequently now move quite differently front the way in which they were instituted by God, prone to evil and inclined always to the desire for something illicit. Reason itself, made blind, erroneous, and obtuse, often holds the false for true and frequently involves itself in the useless and merely curious. The will has been bent and often chooses for the worst, loving the carnal while despising the spiritual and heavenly. The concupiscent fierce is impoverished and inclined rather toward the carnal, the lust of the eyes and the desires of the flesh, gluttony, lust, and avarice. The irascible faculty is disordered and inclined toward the pride of life and worldly glory. Hope no longer hopes in God but in riches and personal merit and always to a degree more or less than is right: Thus we are saddened by the loss of riches or the disdain of the world, rejoice in gluttony and lust, become irritated with our brother. In short, with the loss of original righteousness all our affections are prone to evil from adolescence, or rather from conception, for a soul conceived concupiscently from the flesh contracts a certain pollution and an inclination of the desires toward evil. Even though Christ's most precious death redeemed us from original guilt, so the destitution of these faculties and the law of the flesh are not now sinful in themselves (since we are not obliged not to have it) and there is no damnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, yet he in no way restored us to our pristine state of rectitude, nor did he reform the powers of our souls, but for the sake of our own exercise and merit he left those for us to reform through holy exercises. Behold this is the valley of tears, the state of the miserable, to which we fell and from which we should ascend, rising up and disposing our heart for the climb.

4. Man, Descended from the State of Rectitude in the Fall of the First Man, Is Lured by Concupiscent Desires and Strays Still Further into Impurity of Heart. Impurity of Heart: The Second Fall

Great and indeed too great is the distance between the valley of tears where you now are and the place where God once placed you, that is, the state of rectitude. Therefore a great ascent is necessary, or rather many difficult ascents, and it will require great labor if you wish to return there. Would that you had remained here at least, that you had been at rest and not wandered still further. But alas, you prodigal son, drawn away by certain prostitutes - meaning, the allure of concupiscent desires - you departed into still more remote regions, or as the holy Gospel says, going into the most distant region in pursuit of your desires and there lying with the prostitutes, meaning, your illicit desires. For as often as we have concupiscent desires, so often, according to Jerome, we fornicate. Thus you consumed the whole portion of natural goods and spiritual graces which was coming to you. In the fall of the first man, as noted already, we contracted an inclination of our concupiscent desires to the lowest things, so that unless we constantly resist them we are forced by their impetus to descend to the depths. You, however, have not only not resisted them, but given in: You descend with them, you cling to carnal desires and affections and worldly things, and thereby lose whatever remained in you of natural good and spiritual gifts inclined toward the right.

By clinging to such vile things with desire and affection, moreover, you are in a certain sense made similar and of a like nature to them. You contract a certain sliminess and ooziness in your desires and faculties, and are kept bound down as it were by a sticky glue; and this is properly called impurity of heart. In the natural order things are called and made impure when mixed with viler things gold, for instance, mixed with silver, or silver with lead. So, dear man, your rational soul, worthier than all other temporal creatures, becomes impure and unclean when subjected to temporal things by its love of them or affixed, habituated, and stuck to them by affection and desire. And if it adheres to carnal things with a carnal affection, it takes upon itself a certain sliminess called carnality from which a man is made carnal. If it clings to the things and vanities of this world with a worldly affection, that impurity is called vanity and a man is made secular. Thus it is that Holy Scripture distinguishes between carnal and secular men.

So now you see what is meant by impurity of heart, which you have read about in Scripture and perhaps not understood, It is clearly that affection by which you are inclined and cling to the lower things, be it gluttony, lust, vainglory, pride, or praise accorded you for such things. You acquired that impurity in the fall of the first man, but you added much of your own through habit and clinging, so that what was already unclean festered still more. Behold this is your second step downward, and the further you descend, the more ascents you must make to return to the state of rectitude from which you fell.

5. Man's Third Step Downward: Mortal Sin by Which He Departs Furthest into the Region of Dissimilitude

Yet the prodigal son goes farther and loses still more, for the further he goes the more he loses when departing from God. What more? Once he has consumed everything with the prostitutes, he enters the region of dissimilitude where he subjects himself to one of the citizens of that region, who sets him to feeding pigs. In short, he subjects himself to the devil through mortal sin and gratifies with his behavior every concupiscent desire. In the region of dissimilitude where you have now come, dear man, there is no longer any vestige of virtue. These are then the three descents downward into the region of dissimilitude.

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43. The Three Steps Which Sustain and Advance Spiritual Ascent: Reading, Meditation, and Prayer

Human frailty cannot be constant in its pursuit of purity of heart, nor in its various ascents, spiritual affections, and exercises, and therefore it is hard for someone ascending never to descend unless he has a place where, fatigued, he can rest, and, hungry, he has food to sustain him. Therefore, just as above we offered a threefold discussion to inculcate fuller knowledge of the three descents, so here, with the ladder of ascent now erected, we offer three forms of nourishment so the fatigued soul may find rest and be refreshed along the way when it begins to fail. These three are reading, meditation, and prayer. Every spiritual exercise begins and ends in these three. These are, as it were, the food along the way. Just as God gave bread, wine, and the like to sustain the body, so he conferred these three to sustain the soul in its pilgrimage, as Augustine says.

Reading pertains more to the first step of the ascent which ends in fear. For, according to Hugh, reading pertains to beginners who always conceive first in fear but give birth to a spirit of salvation. Meditation looks more to the second step, the more advanced who have been instructed through the readings and know how to make their way about in their hearts. Prayer, though appropriate to every ascent, suits especially those on the third step of the ascent who have begun to cling to God. For prayer is man's inclination to or desire for God, a certain familiar and pious conversing. But let us see how these three, rightly directed, may advance, help, and sustain us in these ascents.

44. How Sacred Reading Aids and Sustains Those Ascending, and How It Is Ordered toward Spiritual Progress

Struck by fear and depressed with remorse, therefore, yet also inflamed with affection and desire for the ascent, take up some reading apt to spiritual progress, one that admonishes toward constant ascent and exhorts to progress. What you choose to read should speed your ascent toward purity and charity, show you the way through holy exercises and works, warm your affections for the ascent, instill fear, or raise hope. Therefore, as someone said, reading should be a form of admonishment for a Christian philosopher and not just busywork. This will easily happen if, following the teaching of Augustine, you begin your reacting in the fear of the Lord, and it regulates your intention and affections so you seek nothing but spiritual advance toward purity of heart. Like that holy Anthony of whom Gregory speaks in the fourth book of the Dialogues, you should not seek knowledge of words but the tears of compunction, for thereby your mind will be aroused to ardor, turning away from things below to seek things in heaven.

If that reading is to be fruitful to your spiritual ascent, you must consider what you read, when, how, and to what purpose. What: for not all things, however useful, are equally profitable for the ascent. You ought therefore to concentrate upon reading what will inflame your affections toward spiritual progress and ascent rather than obscure or enticing matters that illuminate the intellect or sharpen curiosity, as in disputations. Reading more difficult writings does nothing to refresh the more tender souls and may even crush their good intentions. Read those writings especially that will instruct you m morals, that is, in the nature and uprooting of the vices and in the exercising and spiritual advance of the virtues, together with those that increase your devotion and inflame your affections toward Christ and celestial matters. Even if for some reason you occasionally read something else, return at once to devotional material. For the more continuously you study Scripture, the more you will shape your affections and your sense of things accordingly and thus your meditations as well.

Note, second, when you read. Reading, to be fruitful, should not be done on the spur of the moment and by chance but at a fixed time. A man must attentively refresh his soul through sacred readings, thus to provide his memory with material for his exercises when nothing better occurs to him. Therefore reading should not become an occupation unto itself but should rather direct us toward devout meditation and spiritual prayer, and these in turn by their sweetness should further guide our work and keep us in pleasure during work.

Note, third, how you read. There are those who skim through a whole book before they begin it; others study one folio at the beginning, then abruptly another in the middle or at the end, and proceed in this casual fashion. For a fastidious stomach, as someone said, there is much to taste which in its great variety pollutes rather than nourishes. Choose for yourself a whole book that will suit your purposes, inform your morals, and increase your devotion, and study it from beginning to end in the fear of God with suitable devotion and reverence.

Note, fourth, to what end you read. Certainly your principle intention, as in all your exercises, ought to be purity of heart, not vanity or the pursuit of knowledge alone. The point is not so much that you learn something but rather that it profit you and others through you. That you might refer your reading directly to purity, always extract something from it appropriate to your purpose which may fill your memory and spur your progress, like a clean animal chewing its cud.

To draw further fruit from your reading, vary things, now reading, now praying, now doing your exercises, so as to avoid tedium and keep your stability. In all your regular exercises, find some special delight, for delight keeps a worker at his work. Always fear tedium of the mind. This alone should be your end: to persevere with delight in your works and exercises. So that you may order your reading immediately toward purity, frequently interrupt your reading with prayer; form an affection shaped by reading and thus rise to prayer.

45. Meditation

Meditation is the means by which you studiously turn over in your heart what you have read or heard and thereby stir up your affections or illuminate your intellect. Therefore as you ascend and advance in hope, frequently reflect in your heart upon those things which aid your progress in purity, instill fear, or increase love.

That your meditations might prove fruitful to you and you may easily grow accustomed to good meditation, two things must be carefully considered.
First, provide your soul with useful material which will serve to advance and fruitfully occupy your intention. As the saints say, your soul is like a mill that grinds whatever is put into it; but if nothing is put in, it grinds away at vain and idle things. If you do not determine upon something fixed, lest nothing better should occur to you, whatever comes along will necessarily gain entry. For your heart will easily cling to whatever is happening if it is not intently fixed upon something. But even if you should have something to fall back on, it can happen often enough that you propose to meditate devoutly on a particular matter and before it takes full shape, your proposal slips away, your will slackens, and idleness once again overtakes your heart. You have already heard what materials are useful to meditation and will profit your ascent: recollection of your sins, of your death, the last judgment, the pains of hell, heavenly glory, the benefits of God, the passion of our Lord, and so on. These meditations can be varied in time, taking up what is most appropriate and will most serve your devotion at a given time. Thus, when the church recalls or performs the Lord's passion, you conform yourself and form meditations around the bitter passion of our Lord. Do the same for all the other major feasts of the Church, shaping your exercises around the matter of that feast, as Bernard recommends.
Second, so far as his fragile nature will bear it, a man should strive at all times and in every hour to fill his soul with holy meditations together with spiritual and devout affections. But, as Jerome recommends, a man must set aside certain hours specially to exercise his soul, focusing his spirit and enkindling his spiritual desire. Jerome believes the hour of matins [early morning] especially good for this, for then a man is more sober and better disposed toward spiritual exercise, not yet caught up in the worldly tumults of the day. In this hour therefore a man should strive especially to exercise himself in some devotion, because frequently a man will then persist through the whole day in the desire aroused that morning. For then particularly a man should make every effort to seek some devotion from the Lord or through devout exercises to induce his heart toward meditation by exercising and preparing himself for the readings and chant at matins. He should do something similar at vespers before retiring for sleep. Then, in fear of nightmares, when sleep has overtaken other men, he should carefully listen for some divine whisper, praying to the Lord after his daily self-examination - which should also take place then - that he forgive what he did wrong, even while giving thanks for what he had accomplished that was praiseworthy. Then he should arm himself fiercely against nocturnal fears with pure affections and devout prayers. If you read Holy Scripture at that time, your reading should focus particularly on devotional material, not, for instance, the Old Testament histories - as Saint Benedict also recommends. What was said about performing meditations at certain times applies to all exercises, so you may know when to take them up and when to turn to other things, thus having a time for praying and a time for reading, and all of it in good order.

46. On Prayer and the Manner of Praying

Be in prayer wherever you go and wherever you are, in the house or in the field. Always have recourse to prayer and find refuge in it. With prayer you must take note of four things: First, the affect of prayer, that is, what manner of prayer you take up; second, what kind of prayer, short or long; third, for whom you pray; and fourth, your attitude and mental concentration in prayer.

First, the vigor and virtue of prayer proceeds from the intent of the person praying: God hears the desire of the heart more than the noise of the voice. Therefore, always assume an intention and desire like that of the exercises and meditations with which you are occupied, so that your prayer may proceed from the roots of your heart, and not just from the lips of your mouth, always from a feeling of fear or sadness or love or wonder or gratitude. For instance, if in your first examination you discover your sins multiplied beyond the sands of the sea, assume an attitude of humility or grief and take on the person of the servant who offended his Lord. In such a frame of mind, shape a prayer, saying: According to the multitude of your mercies wipe away my iniquity. If in the second and third examination you find your heart full of evil lust and vicious desire, assume again an attitude of humility and take on the person of a sick man calling upon a doctor and saying: Heal my soul, O Lord, because I have sinned against you. Or again, there is no health in my flesh in the face of your anger, nor is there peace in my bones, because my iniquities have multiplied over my head, and so on. If in the second ascent you exercise yourself in fear through meditation on death, the judgment, or hell, assume the attitude of fear and take on the person of someone standing before a judge with fear and trembling as one convicted, against whom by law a sentence must be handed down, and say: Do not condemn in your anger, Lord, and so on. But if you exercise yourself in hope through recollection of the kingdom of heaven, assume an attitude of love and pray with a fervent heart, saying: One thing I ask of you, O Lord, this I require, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. Or: As a hart pants for the water streams, so my heart desires you, Lord. Do the same with all the other affections which you may form, just as your exercises and meditations require.

Second, form some long prayers and some short ones. By longer ones we mean the canonical hours or anything similar to which you are obligated or which you voluntarily assume. Before these prayers you must always do what the Prophet admonished, saying "I have Focused my spirit," and so on, until your spirit is warmed with devout meditation and conceives an affection and desire of fear or sadness or love or whatever. This applies especially to matins and vespers when you take up meditations on the last judgment, your sins, the hour of your death, the pains of hell, the benefits of God, the passion of Christ, or whatever else is suitable. The others are short prayers which in his Letter to Proba Augustine called exclamatory. Just like the holy Fathers before us, we must always have these ready to exclaim when our desires and affections have been ignited from the reading, so we gay: "May declaration of your words give understanding," and so on. Similarly prayer may interrupt meditation or work. But here no great preparation of mind is needed; it suffices to raise the mind a little toward God from the devout meditation then in progress.

Third, while bodily necessities are also to be sought from God, we must pray more and more often for divine grace, remission of sins, entrance to the kingdom of heaven, the uprooting of the vices, and the acquisition of the virtues. But especially and most often we must pray with ardent desire for the destruction of that vice against which we are principally at war. Nor should you pray only for yourself. Like the whole Church, you should pray for the departed in purgatory and for all your friends who are tempted, troubled, sick, or on pilgrimage.

Fourth, in the short prayers that you utter most frequently, it is good to conduct yourself with an affection conceived or a meditation formed as if you were conversing with God in your very presence. Seek some grace from him or deliverance from temptation, seizing upon words composed and shaped on the spot, suited to your affection or that will serve that affection. This mode is more difficult in longer prayers and a serious burden on the head to sustain. You must therefore attend devoutly to what you are reading and from it form a sensible affection suitable to prayer, guarding your heart from wandering. Furthermore, when your conscience troubles you and you fear to praise Christ in trust, turn like Job to one of the saints, pleading with him to pray for you - a type of prayer called postulatory. Cry out: "Mary, pray for me," and so on. Have fixed times for both the short and the long prayers. Make short prayers especially when temptation grips you, lest it overwhelm you and also when you leave the house, that the Lord watch over your coming and going, just as the holy Fathers did according to Jerome, and again whenever you become conscious of a sin through admonition or self-examination.

Medal struck by Peter Flotner showing Pope on one side and a Cardinal on the other. If the medal is turned upside down the former becomes a demon, the latter, a fool!

Additional Notes from Previous Session.