heart.[1] Sin has made our heart hard and indocile; for being altogether inclined to sensual pleasures, it resists, as the Apostle complained, the laws of the spirit. But I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind.[2] But the soul is rendered docile and tender to the influence of grace that is communicated in mental prayer. By the contemplation of the divine goodness, the great love which God has borne him, and the immense benefits that God has bestowed upon him, man is inflamed with love, his heart is softened, and made obedient to the divine inspirations. But without mental prayer his heart will remain hard and restive and disobedient, and thus he shall be lost. A hard heart shall fare evil at the last.[3] Hence, St. Bernard exhorted Pope Eugene never to omit meditation on account of external occupations. " I fear for you, O Eugene, lest the multitude of affairs (prayer and consideration being intermitted), may bring you to a hard heart, which abhors not itself, because it perceives not."
Some may imagine that the long time which devout souls give to prayer, and which they could spend in useful works, is unprofitable and lost time. But such persons know not that in mental prayer souls acquire strength to conquer enemies and to practise virtue. "From this leisure," says St. Bernard, "strength comes forth." Hence the Lord commanded that his spouse should not be disturbed. I adjure you . . . that you stir not up,
