CHAPTER II. A short Method of Meditation.

            First Point of Preparation: the Presence of God

It may be, my daughter, that you do not know how to practice mental
prayer, for unfortunately it is a thing much neglected nowadays. I will therefore
give you a short and easy method for using it, until such time as you
may read sundry books written on the subject, and above all till practice
teaches you how to use it more perfectly. And first of all, the Preparation,
which consists of two points: first, placing yourself in the Presence of God;
and second, asking His Aid. And in order to place your self in the Presence
of God, I will suggest four chief considerations which you can use at first.
First, a lively earnest realisation that His Presence is universal; that is to
say, that He is everywhere, and in all, and that there is no place, nothing in
the world, devoid of His Most Holy Presence, so that, even as birds on the
wing meet the air continually, we, let us go where we will, meet with that
Presence always and everywhere. It is a truth which all are ready to grant,
but all are not equally alive to its importance. A blind man when in the presence
of his prince will preserve a reverential demeanour if told that the king
is there, although unable to see him; but practically, what men do not see
they easily forget, and so readily lapse into carelessness and irreverence. Just
so, my child, we do not see our God, and although faith warns us that He is
present, not beholding Him with our mortal eyes, we are too apt to forget
Him, and act as though He were afar: for, while knowing perfectly that He is
everywhere, if we do not think about it, it is much as though we knew it not.
And therefore, before beginning to pray, it is needful always to rouse the
soul to a steadfast remembrance and thought of the Presence of God. This is
what David meant when he exclaimed, “If I climb up to Heaven, Thou art
there, and if I go down to hell, Thou art there also!” [25] And in like manner
Jacob, who, beholding the ladder which went up to Heaven, cried out,
“Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not” [26] meaning thereby that
he had not thought of it; for assuredly he could not fail to know that God was
everywhere and in all things. Therefore, when you make ready to pray, you
must say with your whole heart, “God is indeed here.”
The second way of placing yourself in this Sacred Presence is to call to
mind that God is not only present in the place where you are, but that He is
very specially present in your heart and mind, which He kindles and inspires
with His Holy Presence, abiding there as Heart of your heart, Spirit of your
spirit. Just as the soul animates the whole body, and every member thereof,
but abides especially in the heart, so God, while present everywhere, yet
makes His special abode with our spirit. Therefore David calls Him “the
Strength of my heart;” [27] and S. Paul said that in Him “we live and move
and have our being.” [28] Dwell upon this thought until you have kindled a
great reverence within your heart for God Who is so closely present to you.

[25] Ps. cxxxix. 7.
[26] Gen. xxviii. 16.
[27] Ps. lxxiii. 26.
[28] Acts xvii. 28.
[29] Cant. ii. 9.