tion the psalm of " Miserere mei," " Have mercy on me," and applies not himself then to the psalms of joy. This we are to consider that we may choose for matter of meditation those words and prayers which accord with that spirit which we feel, and with the end that we aim at.
This second form of prayer is most proper to those that walk in the illuminative way, pursuing the knowledge and understanding of the truths of faith so to increase in spirit; and of this we will explain the practice in the second and third part, meditating in this way upon the salutation of the angel, upon the canticle of the Virgin, upon the prayer of the " Our Father," and upon certain sentences and prayers of our Lord Christ, upon whose words we will always meditate with more attention, because, as the Spouse said, " His lips are as lilies dropping choice myrrh," [1] that is, they teach most excellent virtue, the first and most surpassing of all other; and (as St. Peter said) His words are " the words of eternal life;" [2] and our Lord Himself says that His " words are spirit and life." [3] And therefore whosoever meditates them as is fitting shall draw forth abundance of spirit and most pure life of grace, by which he may be worthy of life everlasting.
3. The third form of prayer is by way of aspirations and affections, which answer to the respirations of the body, taking care that, between respiration and respiration, there may breathe out from the inward part of our soul some holy affection, or some groaning of the spirit, or some short prayer of those which we call ejaculatory, spending the whole time, that is, between one respiration and another, in the pondering or understanding and spiritual taste of what we desire or ask, or of the thing for which we groan and sigh to God. This form is most accommodated to those that walk in the unitive way, aspiring and thirsting
