The Via Vitæ of St. Benedict - The Holy Rule Arranged for Mental Prayer #233333

Divine things and on God. With Cassian, he was far from thinking that the attainment of contempla tion — that is to say, of anything like continuous and intense application of the spirit to God — was an easy matter. All the means and instruments for the gradual acquisition of such a Spiritual condition, which are entered into at great length by Cassian in the Conference I have quoted, and in the ninth Conference, were, without doubt, insisted on and explained at Monte Cassino. But we find no trace of methods, if by methods we mean a business like marshalling of the mental powers and faculties to produce a special effect in a given time. It would be absurd to suppose that St. Benedict and his school of Spirituality did not give a novice useful directions as to how to use the imagination, the reason, and the will. This kind of instruction is of the essence of all methods; and the methods which have been devised and delivered to the world by great Saints and masters in all ages have invariably dealt with these essential factors in contemplation.