Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/447

 he will  reflect  on  the  remedies  for  them. By meditating on eternity,  David  was  excited  to  the  practice  of  virtue, and to  sorrow  and  works  of  penance  for  his  sins. ''I thought upon  the  days  of  old,  and  I  had  in  my  mind  the  eternal years,. . .  and  I  was  exercised,  and  I  swept  my  spirit. The spouse  in  the  Canticles  said:  The  flowers  have  appeared  in our  land:  the  time  of  pruning  is  come:  the  voice  of  the  turtle  is heard  in  our  land.''  When  the  soul,  like  the  solitary  turtle, retires and  recollects  itself  in  meditation  to  converse with God,  then  the  flowers,  that  is,  good  desires,  appear; then comes  the  time  of  pruning,  that  is,  the  correction of faults  that  are  discovered  in  mental  prayer. "Consider," says St.  Bernard,  "that  the  time  of  pruning  is  at hand,  if  the  time  of  meditation  has  gone  before." For, says the  saint  in  another  place,  meditation  regulates  the affections, directs  the  actions,  and  corrects  defects.

II. Besides, without  meditation  there  is  not  strength to resist  the  temptations  of  our  enemies,  and  to  practise the virtues  of  the  Gospel. Meditation, says  the  Venerable Bartholomew  of  the  Martyrs,  is  like  fire  with  regard to  iron,  which  when  cold  is  hard,  and  can  be  wrought only with  difficulty,  but  placed  in  the  fire  it  becomes soft, and  the  workman  gives  it  any  form  he  wishes. To observe the  divine  precepts  and  counsels,  it  is  necessary to have  a  tender  heart — that  is,  a  heart  docile  and  prepared to  receive  the  impressions  of  celestial  inspirations, and ready  to  obey  them. It was  this  that  Solomon asked of  God:   Give,  therefore,  to  thy  servant  an  understanding