The following hints may serve to show how this exercise of the senses may be made. Applying them, for example, to the contemplation on the Nativity of our Lord:

In the first point, behold our Lord Jesus Christ, enclosed for nine months in the womb of His blessed Mother, utterly hid from the sight and knowledge of men; and learn from this to love hiddenness, and to live before God as though He alone beheld thee.

Next turn thine eyes to S. Joseph and the blessed Mother. See how carefully and reverently they tend and serve the Holy Child. Do thou give Him thy reverence and service too.

Then lift up thine eyes to heaven. Behold all the angel hosts caring naught for those things which men prize so highly, but fixing their gaze on this Infant lying in the manger. See that thou also so live and act as to be a spectacle dear to angels and to God.

In the second point, listen to the new-born Saviour as His silence cries from the manger, and He offers Himself to His Father to do and to bear whatever may be for His glory and for our salvation. Do thou offer thyself in like manner to do and bear all things for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

In the third point, taste with an interior relish the sweet savour of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Isa. xi. 2, 3), and also of the love, joy, interior peace, and other fruits of the Spirit, which dwelt in S. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, and above all in Christ our Lord. Refresh thyself with the sweet odour of these gifts and virtues which filled all the place where they were, and heaven itself, with fragrance; and pray that thou mayest be able to taste more and more the sweetness of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come' (Heb. vi. 5); and to be thyself at all times, and in all places, a sweet savour of Christ unto God' (2 Cor. ii. 15).

In the fourth point, as in spirit thou enterest the stable, put off thy shoes from thy feet, for this is holy ground; then draw near with great reverence and kiss in spirit the manger cradle, offering thyself, and all thou hast, in love and service to the Holy Child.

In the colloquy, renew again that oblation of thyself which thou hast already made in the meditation on the Kingdom of Christ,

The real difference between this exercise and a contemplation would seem to be one of emphasis rather than of method. In a contemplation there is still some activity of the intellect in reasoning and drawing conclusions: the application of the senses is a simpler and more restful way of feeding upon fruit already gathered in one or more contemplations and repetitions on the same Mystery. Thus the application of the senses is especially useful, when the soul, filled with fervent devotion which it has drawn from prolonged and repeated meditation or contemplation upon a Mystery, is able to linger lovingly upon those sensible objects and details which belong to it, finding in every one of them nourishment, and consolation, and fruit, because of the abundance of its love, which makes every smallest thing, and even the slightest hints, to be of great value, and to furnish matter for devotion and consolation' (Directory xx. 4).

It is because this form of exercise is less fatiguing than meditation or contemplation that S. Ignatius always places it in the evening when the exercitant is likely to be somewhat tired. It is the closing exercise of the day, and should be made calmly and gently, without effort or straining of the imagination. What has just been said will explain also why it is that this form of exercise is rarely used in public retreats, or in those which extend only over a few days. In these cases the exercitant will not have time to dwell on a subject by repeated contemplations, as he would be able to do in a long retreat of thirty days, when, according to the plan laid down by S. Ignatius, only two Mysteries of our Lord's Life, and for part of the time (viz. while he is engaged upon the Election) only one, serve each day for the matter of two contemplations, with two repetitions, and an application of the senses. For the same reason this exercise would seldom be suitable for our ordinary daily meditation throughout the year, unless indeed we should first spend several days in contemplating the same Mystery, and then take a day for the application of the senses to it.

When the senses are applied to two Mysteries contemplated on the same day, it will be best to apply them separately, first to one and then to the other, especially when the two Mysteries are not very closely related to one another. Or we may apply them to only one of the Mysteries, omitting the other altogether.

NOTE P

ON CONTEMPLATION' AS USED IN THE EXERCISES, AND ITS RELATION TO CONTEMPLATION AS UNDERSTOOD IN MYSTICAL THEOLOGY

S. Ignatius uses this term in a very different sense from that in which it is employed in mystical theology. He means by it a mental prayer based upon historic facts, such as are the Mysteries of our Lord's incarnate Life; and the special form which the prayer takes is that we behold, observe and consider in each Mystery the persons who take part in it, the words they speak, their actions and other points as if we were actually present. It is obvious that this is to a great extent an exercise of the imagination, though of course it does not exclude the use of the understanding in making reflections, and of the will in eliciting affections and resolutions. Indeed S. Ignatius expressly bids us at the end of each point to reflect on ourselves so as to derive some profit or fruit.

On the other hand mystical writers generally mean by the term a simple regard, accompanied by love,' or 'a simple and amorous gaze.' 1 And herein they distinguish two kinds. of contemplation, ordinary or acquired, and extraordinary or infused. This last is nothing else than the mystic state in all its forms and degrees; the former is defined by Scaramelli as 'that contemplation which, with the aid of grace, we can acquire by our endeavours, and particularly by a long practice of meditation; although, strictly speaking, it is not due to these efforts.' 2 In other words, it is what Père Poulain, following Bossuet, calls the prayer of simplicity or the prayer of simple regard, which is always, he says, the intermediary between meditation (including here affective prayer), and infused contemplation or the mystic state.3

What then is the relation between the method of prayer which S. Ignatius calls contemplation in the Exercises, and this prayer of simplicity which is the same thing as the acquired contempla1 Poulain, The Graces of Interior Prayer, iv. 3.

2 Direttorio Mistico, Tr. 2, No. 69.

S. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Chap. xi. 8, gives a fuller and more exact definition: Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the spirit of love.'

3 Op. cit. Chap. iv. 6.

tion of the mystical writers? I think it must be said that while there are very real differences, yet the former is a preparation for the latter, and may in practice lead on to it, and at last merge in it. For by contemplating the Mysteries of our Lord's Life according to the method taught by S. Ignatius, especially if we take into account what he says about repetitions and the application of the senses, a soul can hardly help being led on from meditation to affective prayer, and that in increasing degrees of simplification till it arrives at last, if God so wills, at the prayer of simple regard, which is, as we have seen, only another name for ordinary or acquired contemplation. The very purpose of the frequent repetitions is that we may penetrate more deeply into the Mysteries, passing more and more from the exercise of the understanding to the prayer of the affections and the will; for, as S. Ignatius says, it is not the abundance of knowledge which fills and satisfies the soul, but to feel and taste the matters interiorly.1 It is for this reason that in making the repetitions we are directed to mark and dwell only on those points in which we have felt greater consolation, or desolation, or greater spiritual relish; 2 and, speaking generally of all our meditations and contemplations, the fourth of the ten Additions says: in the point in which I find that which I desire, there I will rest without being anxious to proceed farther, until I have satisfied myself. If we observe these directions our prayer will naturally tend to become more and more simple. There will be less use of the understanding in considerations, and more dwelling upon a single point by way of contemplation and affection. We shall come more and more to operate, as Fr. Luis de la Palma says, cum affectu et simplici intuitu.' 3 Suarez sums up his discussion of this subject in the following words: 'If any one observes attentively he will see that the Exercises from the very beginning take the exercitant in hand and teach him to contemplate and weigh some truth with internal quietude of mind, and with the affections which accompany it. The application of the senses also, of which S. Ignatius speaks in the Second Week, tends to produce the same result. For these interior senses ought to be applied in such a way that the mind by means of them gazes upon some object with admiration and love, or hears words so as to be deeply moved by their meaning, or inhales the fragrance 2 First Week, third Exercise. 2 Praxis Viae Spiritualis. Instructio pro meditatione.

1 Annotation ii.

of the virtues or gifts of some soul, and so with the other senses; for indeed this application partakes of the nature of contemplation, at least as regards the mode of its operation.' 1

Of extraordinary or infused contemplation S. Ignatius says little, for indeed it cannot be taught in books, but is a supernatural gift of God. He contents himself with giving full instructions for preparing ourselves for such a gift if God should be pleased to bestow it. It would be a mistake, however, to infer from this that S. Ignatius had no personal experience of this kind of contemplation. On the contrary he had a thorough experimental knowledge of the mystical life, and of supernatural prayer. We are told in his Life by Bartoli 2 that he was often so wrapt in contemplation that he had to be dispensed from saying the Divine Office. And the same thing is related of him in the Life of Fr. Balthazar Alvarez: The day scarcely sufficed him for the fulfilment of this single obligation.' And at times he was compelled to interrupt his Mass, so that it took him at least an hour, in spite of his wish to observe the limit of half an hour which he had fixed for his Religious. He had also frequent ecstasies and visions. Nor did he at all confine his disciples and those under his direction to discursive prayer, or even to the kind of contemplation taught in the Exercises. As soon as a man entered the Society he made him follow the Exercises in silence for a month. Afterwards the professed Religious were only urged in a general way to consecrate the largest possible part of their free time to prayer.4 Each would thus follow his own particular attraction, and be led on, according as God might enable him, in various degrees of affective and contemplative prayer. In like manner, when consulted with regard to the exercises of the scholastics of the Society, he replied that they must not be overburdened with meditations. First and foremost, two very simple, short, but frequently repeated exercises were to be required of them: the loving attention to God, as present with us, and the offering of their works to Him. This,' he says, 'will be easy.. and if they are well disposed they will in this way draw down visits from God

1 De Relig. IX, vi. 11.

2 Book IV, Chap. xii, and cf. Fr. Baker, Sancta Sophia, p. 389. 3 Ch. xli, 6th difficulty.

4 Poulain, Graces of Interior Prayer, Chap. ii. 68, where he adds that 'this custom lasted for thirty years; and then mental prayer was gradually introduced.'