Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/236

 settling your  imagination,  of  weakening  your  faith,  and  of  filling your mind  with  anxiety  and  trouble;  when  we  should  judge  of the  security  of  this  state  merely  from  what  you  continually  tell  us, that you  are  incapable  of  arranging  yourself  for  prayer,  and  that,  on your  part,  it  is  always  attended  with  an  insupportable  disgust  and weariness; I  say,  that,  for  these  reasons  alone,  the  most  innocent worldly life  is  a  life  of  sin  and  reprobation;  a  life  for  which  there is no  salvation:  for  salvation  is  promised  solely  to  prayer;  salvation is  not  attainable  but  through  the  aid  of  prayer;  salvation is  granted  only  to  perseverance  in  prayer;  consequently,  every life which  places  an  invincible  obstacle  in  the  way  of  prayer,  can have no  pretensions  to  salvation. Now, you  are  fully  sensible yourselves, my  brethren,  that  a  life  of  dissipation,  of  gaming,  of pleasure,  and  of  public  places,  puts  an  essential  obstacle  in  the  way of prayer;  that  it  places  in  your  heart,  in  your  imagination,  in  your senses, an  invincible  disgust  at  prayer,  an  unsettledness  incompatible with  the  spirit  of  prayer:  you  continually  complain  of  this; you even  make  use  of  it  as  a  pretext  not  to  pray;  and  from  thence be assured  that  there  is  no  salvation  for  the  worldly  life,  even  the most innocent;  for,  wherever  prayer  is  impossible,  salvation  must likewise be  so. First reason  of  the  disgusts  and  of  the  wanderings of our  prayers — the  lukewarmness  and  the  infidelity  of  our  life.

The second  is  our  little  usage  of  prayer. We pray  with  disgust, because we  seldom  pray. For, first,  it  is  the  practice  alone  of prayer  which  will  gradually  calm  your  mind,  which  will  insensibly banish from  it  the  images  of  the  world  and  of  vanity,  which  will disperse all  those  clouds  which  produce  all  the  disgusts  and the wanderings  of  your  prayers. Secondly, you  must  ask  for  a  long time before  you  can  obtain;  you  must  press,  solicit,  and  even  importune;  the  sweets  and  the  consolations  of  prayer  are  the  fruit  and the reward  of  prayer  itself. Thirdly, there  must  be  familiarity  in order  to  find  pleasure  in  it. If you  seldom  pray,  the  Lord  will  be a  strange  and  unknown  God  to  you,  as  I  may  say,  before  whom you will  feel  yourself  embarrassed,  and  under  a  kind  of  restraint; with whom  you  will  never  experience  those  overflowings  of  heart, that sweet  confidence,  that  holy  freedom,  which  familiarity  alone bestows, and  which  constitute  the  whole  pleasure  of  the  divine  intercourse. God requires  to  be  known,  in  order  to  be  loved. The world loses  by  being  examined;  the  surface,  and  the  first  glance  of it  are  alone  smiling. Search deeper,  and  it  is  no  longer  but  emptiness, vanity,  anxious  care,  agitation,  and  misery. But the  Lord must be  tasted,  says  the  prophet,  in  order  to  feel  how  good  he  is. The more  you  know,  the  more  you  love  him:  the  more  you  unite yourself to  him,  the  more  do  you  feel  that  there  is  no  true  happiness on  the  earth  but  that  of  knowing  and  of  loving  him.

It is  the  use,  therefore,  of  prayer,  which  alone  can  render  prayer pleasing. Thus we  see  that  the  generality  of  persons  who  complain of  the  disgusts  and  of  the  wanderings  of  their  prayers,  seldom pray; think  this  important  duty  fulfilled  when  they  have  bestowed upon the  Lord  a  few  hasty  moments  of  thoughtlessness  and  re-