HOW TO MEDITATE*

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDITATION OR MENTAL PRAYER.

St. Augustine is quoted as saying that "any one who knows how to pray rightly, knows how to live rightly." Many opinions could be cited of holy and learned writers who attach the greatest importance to mental prayer, and some persons think it even necessary for salvation.

REMOTE PREPARATION.

• Avoid venial sins and be exact in all duties.
• Practice some self-denial; guard your eyes and tongue.
• Have a habit of recollection and union with God.
• Be patient and kind.

PROXIMATE PREPARATION.

• Read the subject attentively the evening before, and fix it in the memory.
• Picture in your imagination some object or scene connected with the subject of meditation.
• Take a respectful and not too easy posture in meditating. We should try to come to prayer with a disengaged mind and a tranquil heart.

METHOD.

• Begin your Mental Prayer by realizing the presence of God, and kiss your crucifix devoutly.
• Preparatory Prayer: O my God, I offer myself entirely to Thee, and beg of Thee to direct all the powers of my soul to know, honor, love, and serve Thee. Grant, dearest Lord, that I may practice the virtue taught by this meditation.
• Recall the picture formed in imagination.
• Then carry on a conversation, as it were, with Almighty God, while you exercise your memory, understanding, and will (either all together or separately), asking:

1. What am I going to think of? (Who? Where? When? Why?)
2. What doctrine or practical truth is to be learned from this?
3. What reasons or motives are there for it from authority, reason, experience, or from the subject itself? (Is it becoming? Is it profitable? Is it agreeable? Is it easy? Is it necessary?)
4. How have I done in the past? (in thought, word, action; towards God, my neighbor, myself?)
5. What must I do in the future? (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?)
6. What obstacles are in my way? (internal, external?)
7. What means must I use? (determine one or two things, and no more)

• Finish your meditation by a most fervent address to God the Father, to Jesus Christ, to God the Holy Ghost; also to the Blessed Virgin, the Angels and Saints.
• After Meditation, examine yourself as to the preparation for your mental prayer; as to the manner in which you have made the meditation itself (posture, attention place, time). If it has succeeded, thank God; if it has not, find out the cause and resolve to do better next time.