bearing blog: Introduction to the Devout Life General conclusions: 5-17, two objections.

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Part Five of Introduction to the Devout Life ends with two chapters that thematically belong outside it in a separate "Conclusion," as they refer back to the book as a whole.

(Hubris check: I find myself itching to take St. Francis's masterpiece and cut it up and move the bits around and re-label a lot of the headings, as the writing is beautifully applicable to modern life but the organization is just a little bit, er, medieval. No one is going to hire me to adapt it anytime soon, I suppose, so I'll have to content myself with a bunch of blog posts that maybe will work as a study guide when I have the chance to do a round-up.)

So, anyway, 5-17 is called "An answer to two objections." These are, I reiterate, hypothetical objections that "worldly people" will make to the entire contents of the book, not objections to the annual renewal that's presented in Part Five.

Objection 1: "[A]nyone who tries to put all these counsels and instructions into practice will have no time for anything else."

Objection 2: "This Introduction is not suitable for everyone" because "I nearly always presume the gift of mental prayer in [the reader], whereas this is not always the case."

Both of these objections boil down to "This so-called 'introduction' is too hard for ordinary people!" Let's take a look at Francis's answers.

(1)

No time for anything else. Remember that Francis is writing this book very specifically for people living in the world, who have a great deal of everyday duties. I can tell you personally that the recommendations in this book are quite realistic, at least for this busy mother of four -- what I have tried so far, I have found to be flexible and accommodating, and I remain optimistic that I could incorporate even more of its suggestions as I become more practiced.

But here's Francis:

It would be true if it were necessary to practice [all the counsels and instructions] every day, but, in fact, it is only necessary to practice them as and when the occasion demands. Think of the innumerable laws in the civil code; they must all be observed by only when they apply, and this does not happen every day.

So the first point is that, while his program is detailed as a whole, on any given day only some of it is necessary to put into practice.

The second point is that we have examples of very busy people who nevertheless managed to put a great deal of time into the spiritual life:

King David used to practice far more spiritual exercises than I have advocated, despite the fact that he was constantly occupied with very difficult affairs.

St Louis... used to hear two Masses every day, say Vespers and Compline with his chaplain, make his meditation, visit the hospitals, and go to confession and take the discipline every Friday, frequently attend sermons and take part in spiritual discussions; yet he never wasted any opportunity of working for the public good, and fulfilled his public duties with every care...

He finishes with an appeal to Providence:

Be courageous... in putting all of these instructions into practice as I have suggested and God will give you sufficient leisure and strength to fulfil all your duties... We always do enough, when God works with us.

(2)

Not everyone has the "gift of mental prayer." I confess that this one stymies me a little bit. I can't really imagine what it is not to be able to make a "mental prayer." But it's pretty obvious that Francis thinks that "mental prayer" -- which he implies is different from "vocal prayer" -- is a skill that can be learned, and maybe must be learned by some people who don't naturally incline to it.

I think what he means by the difference between "mental" and "vocal" prayer is one of these two things.

Possibility 1 - "Mental" prayer is any prayer not spoken with the lips, but instead dwelt on by the mind - either prayer without words, or with words that unspool in the thoughts (sort of like a song that gets stuck in your head. "Vocal" prayer is any prayer spoken with the lips and voice.

Possibility 2 - By vocal prayer he means a prescribed text, such as the traditional prayers of the Church or a written meditation; by "mental" prayer he means spontaneous prayer in one's own words.

I think the first one makes more sense, but I'm not entirely sure. I find it easier to imagine "not being able" to come up with spontaneous words for prayer, but maybe when he talks about mental prayer being difficult for some people, he means that they are easily distracted. On the other hand, perhaps here in our day we are more comfortable with spontaneous prayer than 16th-century French Catholics were; Protestant culture, in which we are steeped whether we like it or not, views spontaneous prayer as the norm, whereas it views prescribed prayer-texts with suspicion; maybe 16th-century French Catholics were sort of the other way around, and found spontaneous or creative prayer intimidating or perhaps a sign of arrogance, and maybe few people actually tried it much. (I googled around and found this interesting roundup of writings on "mental prayer.")

In any case, for our modern ears and attention-span, we can substitute the objection that not everyone is able to pray for very long without getting bored or distracted. It amounts to the same problem anyway: Worldly people will say that not everyone is able to attend to all this meditation stuff you're going on about.

So what does Francis say about this obstacle?

It is true that I have presumed this and it is also true that not everyone has the gift of mental prayer; nevertheless, there is no doubt that nearly all, even the most stupid, are capable of acquiring this gift, provided that they have a good spiritual director and are prepared to give it the attention it deserves.

In the rare cases where this is not possible a wise director can easily teach them how to read through the meditations carefully, or to listen to them being read out, in such a way that they compensate for this defect.

I think Francis's answer -- that almost anyone is able to learn to pray, and that the few who aren't can compensate by carefully reading along -- applies just as well to the modern problem of distractions as it did to whatever medieval problem kept some people from thinking they had the gift of mental prayer.

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This is not the only place in the book where Francis tries to refute objections from "the world" or "the worldly" -- those show up in other places as well -- it would be good to try to draw them all together -- maybe I can do that in another post sometime.