no less useful for the former. Of all the ways of practising vocal prayer, the two that follow are the most perfect.
I. When he who prays recites all the words attentively and distinctly, so as to understand at the same time what be reads, but without pausing, so that the mind dwells and ruminates on no portion of what is read.
This is the common mode of praying; but the spirit of the person who prays is thus barely nourished with any taste of devotion. For no sooner does a word or a sentence suggest some holy feeling or affection, that it escapes and disappears in the course of transition to others.
Hence this method is like a copious and violent shower of rain, which washes the surface only, but does not penetrate or moisten the ground, from which it flows off before it can drink it in. So, too, by this hasty kind of vocal prayer, the person who prays is only sensibly affected; but the mind is imbued with no solid feeling, when the foot, as it were, is planted nowhere, and passes on continually to something else.
II. Vocal prayer is practised, when, in praying, the mind not only understands the words, but also rests, as it were, a little while to ponder and reflect upon each of the words, or at least of the sentences, by which some holy feeling is produced, as if it had found some pleasant pasture, wherewith to refresh itself.
Thus, for instance, in repeating the Lord’s Prayer, or the Psalms, we may pause a little at the words or sentences, and consider what portion of celestial honey, of spiritual devotion, consolation, or doctrine may lie within it; by means of which may be elicited from each of them the affections , for example, of faith, hope, love, &c.
This kind of prayer is like a continuous rain, which falls in small but numerous drops, and quickly sinks into and penetrates the ground, watering and fructifying it abundantly. Such prayer has a fixed and definite end, and thus leaves behind it affections imprinted fixedly on the mind, by which it is thenceforward the more copiously refreshed, nourished, and watered.
This method and practice of prayer has been exemplified with sufficient clearness, in my remarks on the Lord’s Prayer, in each port of the Paradise.
That F. Leonardos Lessius , a man illustrious for his holiness and learning, Was in the habit of praying thus, is related by the author of his life. Take, he says, as an example, his use of the Lord’s Prayer, and judge from this of his other
