I am being steered from one essential reading to another. Moving from Father Gerald Vann to St Peter of Alcantara. Note on Father Vann quote yesterday. Nothing important, yet inspiring. Father Vann quoted Thomas Merton. After posting, I went for a walk in Cain Park, flavoring the walk with a delightful conversation with a friend who invited me Saturday to his one man play detailing the life of Thomas Merton. I have been working so much, it will be my first day off in twelve days, perfect for fascination and entertainment. There will be a dinner before the performance. The coincidence made my heart smile. Now a new book stirs the heart and mind. I am enthralled with the little book printed in 1926. I attained it from the Cleveland downtown main library. It took the library over a week to come up with the relic as it was retired to a remote storage location.
The book, ‘Treatise on Prayer and Meditation’, is the work of St Peter of Alcantara, another Spanish saint from the sixteenth century making an influence. I provided a quick video detailing his life. He is thoroughly brought to light in the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila. In the brilliant Spanish television miniseries documenting the life of Teresa of Avila there is a wonderful scene of the hermit Franciscan St Peter entering the city to meet with St Teresa. He would serve as her confessor and spiritual director. Cinematically, the scene marked me. I loved the beautiful Spanish locale, the city dwelling, the protective wall, and the inhabitants residing. Playing, enjoying idle time, the children gather, becoming excited when news spreads of the holy man of the mountains coming to visit. The children joyfully greet the walking man of God. It is simply a movie, yet St Peter visually lifted me spiritually with his cantor and recondite presence, a man full of life, not remoteness nor a solitary strange hermetic unsavory disposition. The hermit is not one rejecting life, he is one absorbed with God and thus radiating life. In his writing, St Peter, similar to the two Alphonsus: Liguori and Rodriguez, embraces the vast domain of Catholicism by supplying wonderful quotes from other saints. It is obvious his teaching arises from a wealth of knowledge attained from within the Church. A man of the Church, he teaches nourished by the Body of Christ here upon the earth.
Two quotes St Peter of Alcantara provides from other saints on the importance of a sound and steady prayer life, the first from a fellow Franciscan Saint Bonaventure and the second from St. Lawrence Justinian. Beyond rambling praise, the individual concepts appeared essential to me while reading. The quotes come within establishing devotion, a focus upon the ways of God, as a vital virtue, while arising within the identification of my sinful nature. Prayer is a process, the ongoing means of attaining perfection. Victory over myself is achieved through a stout prayer life, a devotion to God. I have been considering this a lot, Ann’s influence reasserting itself in disposition. She is correct when she stresses I am out of balance, that I stress too much the spiritual, divulging myself too actively within my prayer life, the consequence being an unstable man prone to a quick temper, an obsessive nature, and out of sorts in my natural life. I agree with the observation, yet the solution is not to discard or diminish my prayer life, rather to elevate my natural life, my coping and living experiences, through my strength in prayer. If equalizing is a process of lowering, it is destruction. On the other hand, if equalizing is attained through elevating, it is construction. My prayer life must be the passive means of allowing God to purify and cleanse my temperament. My natural life does not benefit by diminishing my prayer life. My natural life must be brought to fruition through my prayer life before the Eucharist and within the sacrifice of mass, and thus daily an ongoing process of perfection is maintained. The spiritual life takes time, especially if you are as raw around the edges as I am.
If you would endure with patience the adversities and miseries of this life, be a man of prayer. If you would acquire strength and courage to vanquish the temptations of the enemy, be a man of prayer. If you would crush your self will with all its inclinations and desires, be a man of prayer. If you would know the wiles of Satan and defend yourself against his snares, be a man of prayer. If you would live with a gay heart, and pass lightly along the road of penance and sacrifice, be a man of prayer. If you would drive away vain thoughts and cares which worry the soul like flies, be a man of prayer. If you would nourish the soul with a sap of devotion and have it always filled with good thoughts and desires, be a man of prayer. If you would strengthen and establish your heart in the way of God, be a man of prayer. Finally, if you would uproot from your soul old vices, and plant virtues in their place, be a man of prayer, for herein does a man receive the unction and grace of the Holy Spirit, who teaches all things…”
In prayer the soul cleanses itself from sin, charity is nourished, faith is strengthened, hope made secure; the spirit rejoices, the soul grows tender, and the heart is purified, truth discovers itself, temptation is overcome, sadness takes to flight, the senses are renewed, failing virtue is made good, tepidity disappears, the rust of sin is rubbed away. In it are brought forth lively flashes of heavenly desires, and in these fires burns up the flame of divine love. Great are the excellences of prayer, great its privileges. The heavens open before it, and unveil therein their secrets, and to it are the ears of God ever attentive.
