What is prayer?
Prayer is the elevation of the interior life.
The interior life is the intimate conversation which everyone has with himself as soon as he is alone, even in the tumult of a great city. From the moment he ceases to converse with his fellow men, man converses interiorly with himself about what preoccupies him most. This conversation varies greatly according to the different ages of life; that of an old man is not that of a youth. It also varies greatly according as a man is good or bad.
As soon as a man seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. He begins to truly love himself – not in an egotistical fashion, but because He recognizes that God loves him. And likewise, he loves all other men as himself for the same reason. He lives with a joy which does not waver in the face of passing circumstances.
Conversely, the interior life of the base man is something more animal than divine. He is more acquainted with the rush of pleasure than with the constancy of joy. He is more acquainted with the fear of capricious human consequences than with God’s eternal judgment. These passions please or hurt him as the weather is good or bad, or as he earns or loses money. His intimate conversation is always related to objects of cupidity or envy. He inevitably puts power, pleasure, honor, or wealth in the place of God. Never finding anything which fully satisfies him, he tries to flee from himself to forget the emptiness. He ends in hating life because he desired too greatly what was inferior in it.
Prayer is, again, reorienting the mind away from the world and toward eternity. It is cultivating the seed of goodness which God provides.
Virtue
Many believe that some vague, minimal level of goodness is sufficient to reach Heaven, and that sainthood is going “above and beyond.” And indeed, no one needs to perform great miracles or be canonized by the Church to be saved. No one needs some high level of culture or intellect to be saved. But it is necessary to be a saint to be saved. Everyone in Heaven is a saint. If you are not a saint, you cannot be in Heaven.
Is this unfair? Asking too much? Certainly not: if sinners are willing to give up everything in the pursuit of their meaningless ends – power, pleasure, honor, wealth – how much more tenaciously should the saint pursue the good of his eternal soul? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? “Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary: to hear the word of God and to live by it.
Thus, virtues – good habits – are one major component of the prayerful life. Specifically, I speak of supernatural virtues, which are the sovereign gift of God, normally communicated through baptism. While a natural virtue is oriented toward an object, supernatural virtue is oriented toward God. For example, the man with natural virtue may demonstrate religiosity to be recognized in his community, but the man with supernatural virtue demonstrates religiosity because it’s the right thing to do. Or, the natural man may diet to lose weight, while the supernatural man fasts as a penance. Or, the natural man may not marry to avoid financial difficulty, while the supernatural man might give up marriage to become a missionary.
Man’s major responsibility in this realm is the elimination of vice. As man eliminates vices through his action, God provides greater supernatural virtue through His action. Now vices are simply excesses or defects in one’s relationship to a virtue. For example, an excessive relationship with courage is stubbornness, while a defective relationship with courage is cowardice. I say the relationship can be wrong because one can never have an excess of the actual virtue. More virtue is always good. Vice is really a false relationship with some virtue.
I will describe the three theological virtues and the cardinal moral virtues and their related vices.
Theological Virtues
Charity, the love of God and love of neighbor for God’s sake, is the first and greatest virtue. As St. Paul says: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and angels, but do not have charity, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I prophesy, and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have faith enough to move mountains, but do not have charity, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions and hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have charity, I gain nothing. Charity is patient; charity is kind; charity is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
The excessive, false version of charity is sentimentalism. That is, giving people what they want so you can feel good about yourself, as opposed to giving them what they need because its the right thing to do. Sometimes, what people need may be discipline, harsh instruction, or to be told they are wrong. Consider the chastising love of God in the Old Testament. On the other hand, the defective version of charity is cruelty. The cruel person is impatient and angry at everything for not being the way he feels it should be. He substitutes concern with anger, patience with frustration, and correction with mockery.
Faith is the virtue by which one trusts in the deposit of wisdom that is the Church. Man’s ears “itch for what they want to hear,” and his heart is “deceitful above all things.” The Catholic Church is the infallible guide which lifts man above his fallibility and confusion and puts him on the true and sure path to God.
The excessive version of faith is false-faith. False-faith is trusting in promises God never made. An example are the universalists, who teach that all men are saved, despite Christ’s dozens of references to the eternal punishment of Hell. Another example are the Protestants, who teach that man is saved without cooperative action. These groups ignore the real God and create an idol made in their own image. They do not love God for God’s sake; they only love the comfort they find in their idea of Him. The defective form of faith is infidelity. To reject even one, single defined doctrine of the Catholic Church is to destroy the entire virtue of faith. Why? Because to say the Church is wrong about a doctrine is to say she could be wrong about any doctrine, and at that point you’re back to trusting your own “itching ears” and “deceitful heart.”
Hope is the virtue by which one trusts God to help them attain salvation. If faith is trusting that seeds grow into trees, hope is going to the garden and watering them daily. Hope is expressed in a disciplined prayer life and frequent use of the sacraments. The excess of hope is presumption, believing either that God will make one a saint with practically no effort on their part, or that sainthood can be earned without God’s help. A classic example of the former is the man who skips Sunday mass to watch football. A classic example of the latter is scrupulosity, which almost treats God as an obstacle to be overcome, thinking everything a sin and making excessive use of confession. The defect of hope is despair. Despair is simply thinking that sainthood is impossible and giving up on it.
Moral Virtues
Prudence is the highest moral virtue, which is simply knowing the means to attain salvation. Prudence consists of seeking out and taking good counsel with docility, measuring it against experience, and shrewdly applying it to the circumstances of one’s life. The prudent man may learn, for example, that money never fully satisfies, and so takes a lower-paying job to spend more time in prayer. The excess of prudence is timidity – an unwillingness to make decisions for fear of being wrong. Often, this paralysis comes from a lack of hope in God’s help. The defect of prudence is brashness, which is an inclination to jump into roles or make decisions without appropriate preparation. The brash person is often highly judgmental of authorities, always thinking they would do it better.
Justice is rendering another his due, whether God, or one’s neighbor for the sake of God. Justice has many facets, but can generally be described as paying back what one owes, whether to another sovereign individual, or to the government, or to the poor, or to authorities. But justice does not only apply to sterile types of transactions. Justice is the root of gratefulness, honesty, and friendliness. The excess of justice is obsequiousness, which is a self-serving, blind compliance more interested in sycophantism than virtue. The defect of justice is treachery, in which one expects justice of others but does not render it themselves. A great example is the teenager who refuses to take out the trash while his parents provide him everything.
Fortitude is the willingness to engage in the arduous for the sake of God. The person with fortitude seeks excellence in all things, accepting that this almost always means difficulty. This might manifest in excellent use of resources, the patient bearing of evil or awaiting of goodness, perseverance, and love of suffering. The perfect example of fortitude is Christ bearing the cross. The excess of fortitude is stubbornness, which is a love of arduous things for the sake of arduousness. The stubborn man is often obsessed with his manliness and ability rather than in simply achieving his duty. On the other hand, the coward shies away from difficulty purely because it is difficult. He often comes up with excuses, such as being too humble to seek excellence, when really he is just too afraid to try doing anything great.
Temperance is the ability to moderate the appetites for the sake of God. Temperance is most manifest in integrity – always seeking what is virtuous, as opposed to what feels good. The temperate man is sober, chaste, continent, modest, slow to anger, and simple. Through prudence he recognizes his total dependence upon God, but through humility he lives it. He learns what he needs to learn and ignores distractions. He knows when it is time to rest and when it is time to work. The excess of temperance is inflexibility, which is (ironically) an immoderate attachment to a form of moderation. For example, a man who has to raise a family cannot practice the virtue of simplicity to the point of giving up all personal property, as it would interfere with his duties as a father. The defect is licentiousness – replacing God and virtue with the whims of the appetites.
The Act of Prayer
The physical act of prayer can technically be any good action performed with devotion and mindfulness of God. That does indeed mean that all supernaturally virtuous action is prayer. As such, St. Paul instructs Christians to “pray ceaselessly.” But here we will speak of the “traditional” meaning of prayer, the sort one does with hands clasped and eyes closed.
There are two basic forms of prayer – vocal prayer, and meditation. Of the two, meditation is the higher, and should practically always accompany vocal prayer once one is past childhood. The most common ways people practice meditation are by reflecting on a certain aspect of scripture. This has three parts. First, consideration. For example, one may read the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, pausing to think about the spiritual realities of the story. Second, application. That parable may lead one to meditate on their own relationship to material possessions, or their mindfulness of the poor. Finally, resolution. Good discursive meditation ends with the firm will to act – in this case, perhaps by dedicating extra money to charity.
The Rosary is one of the most popular forms of meditation. My synopsis of the Gospel follows the mysteries of the Rosary; it is a good resource for guided meditation.
Three Ages
The spiritual life is a progression of “three ages” – the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive. One ascends through these levels through a combination of destroying vice and meriting an increase in supernatural virtue through prayer. Virtue and prayer grow together as the fingers on the hand.
Purgative
The first age is that of the beginner. The beginner may be a new convert to Catholicism, a child, or someone who returns to the Church after many years away. The beginner does not know God very well. Attachments taint their mind, and their ways are natural. They have an initial knowledge of themselves, and little by little they discern their defects. If they are generous, they seek to correct themselves without exception. Their self-reflection must be constant in order to overcome their deeply ingrained vices. However, this self-knowledge remains superficial for a long time. Often, they begin to recognize the egoism of others before their own, liking to think themselves holier than they are. Their knowledge of God is largely factual or emotional, not experiential.
Many beginners neglect the mortification necessary for their growth. They resemble a man who would like to begin climbing a mountain, not from the base, but from halfway up the side. The fire within them is merely a spark of self-interested enthusiasm, and it dies quickly. With only bare, superficial knowledge and experience of the divine, they abandon spirituality, thinking they had reached the heights and found nothing. Some beginners take an unusual level of delight and comfort in spirituality, which is not a bad thing in itself, but it can become a crutch. Come discomfort and they will try to repeat the things which make them feel good instead of striving for greater holiness. Another pitfall for beginners is religious egoism, like that of the pharisees. They practice religion to feel good about themselves, not to render justice to God.
The Dark Night of the Senses
The beginner who presses onward generously and patiently will eventually reach the first trial: the “dark night of the senses.” The beginner, for all their effort, cannot fix their own self-reliance and self-interest. God remedies this by taking away sensible comforts. The beginner attains a deep, penetrating, uncomfortable understanding of the meaninglessness of created things, even including the good emotions that come with spirituality. The beginner may become confused and believe they are backsliding or becoming depressed, as it feels the world is being torn away from them. But if they press onward in a spirit of faith, they will find that the material world is not being taken away; rather, the spiritual world is being given. Through this weaning, they come to realize that holiness does not consist in “feeling” God’s presence, but in doing God’s will.
Illuminative
Virtue rules the soul in the illuminative way, as opposed to sensible considerations. However, the illuminative soul is not dominated by virtue; good behavior still takes significant effort. The soul in this state has a keen and constant awareness of the emptiness of material things. Their fear of the Lord and piety drive them toward good penances and a strong prayer life. They are aware of their helplessness from the experience of the night of the senses, and through this awareness the soul in the illuminative way is docile to the inspirations of God. They begin to understand God’s will, both through the gift of prudence and the beginnings of infused contemplation. Contemplation is a higher form of meditation, infused by God to reveal an otherwise inaccessible truth. A contemplative may, for example, have a sudden, penetrating, utterly inexplicable understanding of the Trinity. Through contemplation, God instructs the soul directly.
The Dark Night of the Soul
The night of the soul is the most exacting spiritual trial. At the heights of the illuminative way, the soul begins to properly understand the grandeur of God, but also understand all the hidden defects of their own soul. The contrast is overpowering, like the brilliant light of the sun shone in the eyes of a night-owl. This divine clarity causes extreme suffering. The temptations of this trial are not against the moral virtues, as in the night of the senses, but the theological virtues. Faith, hope, and charity are tested by temptations of doubt, despair, and self-hatred. The soul here is in a state of impassivity. It does not recognize new faults within itself, but feels a deep separation from God. But in spite of this aridity, the generous soul perseveres in habitual avoidance of sin and good works. God rewards them with an almost constant state of contemplation.
Unitive
The unitive soul approaches spiritual perfection. Their state is marked by a profound detachment from the world and abandonment to God’s will. Their virtues are outright heroic, particularly charity, faith, and humility; their patience almost unalterable. For a unitive soul, all suffering is external. That is, all suffering comes from without; there is no interior contradiction like anxiety or lust or vainglory which causes them suffering. Briefly: the unitive soul is a paragon of virtue and a walking image of Christ. In some sense, they serve as a living conscience for others, as their holy presence often causes others to behave better. Contrary to being extraordinary, everyone should reach the unitive way, as it is the essence of saintliness. Of course, those within the unitive way may have varying degrees of perfection, as Jesus is more perfect than Mary, though both were spotless.
Three Spirits
There are three spirits which can animate a man’s behavior: the natural spirit, the evil spirit, and the Holy spirit.
Facing its first difficulties, the natural spirit stands still and quits the interior life. Often under the pretext of the apostolate, it takes satisfaction in its natural activity in which the soul becomes increasingly exterior. It confounds charity with philanthropy. Let contradiction or trial arise and nature complains of the cross and grows irritated and discouraged. Its first fervor is only a passing enthusiasm. It is indifferent to the glory of God; it is truly just egoism. After failing to find joy in the spiritual life, it declares that one must avoid all austerity, deep prayer, or mysticism. It thus confounds mediocrity for humility. The egoist judges everything from his point of view, not God’s. But sometimes the reality of his plight reminds him of the savior’s words: “without Me, you can do nothing.”
The bedrock of the evil spirit is pride. Through exaggerated religiosity, this spirit makes a man vainglorious; through excessive fasting, weak; through scrupulosity, distrustful of God. Often spiritual pride comes with a false humility by which we speak ill of ourselves on certain points in order to hinder others from speaking on a more sensitive point. The evil spirit draws the mind away from the simple truths of the Gospel towards the extraordinary, often obsessing over miracles to prove one’s holiness. It draws one to a vocation that isn’t theirs, such as making a married man dream of priesthood, or vice versa. Hope is displaced by an impatient desire to be perfect. Charity is displaced by excessive sentimentalism or bitter zeal which always sees the worst in others. Those who come forth from prayer with increased self-love and disregard for obedience and simplicity pray only to the Devil.
The Holy Spirit is true and humble, inspiring deep devotion (instead of exaggerated religiosity), love of others (instead of self-love), fearlessness in the face of scorn, and silence about divine favors. The Holy Spirit guides one to satisfaction with what is most simple and profound in the Gospel. It quickens hope and preserves from presumption. It provides an ardent desire for prayer. The Spirit leads one to think first of God and to trust Him, to avoid judging one’s neighbors, to love others, to be patient in trial, and to rely on mercy when falling short. One may reasonably consider themselves to be a friend of this Spirit if they are not conscious of any mortal sin, habitually avoid earthly pleasures, find joy in the presence of God, wish to please God above all things, and love their neighbor effectively in spite of his defects.