INSTRUCTION 28

INSTRUCTIO XXVIII

On transformation into Christ through the exercise of prayer and penance.

<DE TRANSFORMATIONE IN CHRISTUM ORATIONIS ET PAENITENTIAE EXERCITIO>

Prayer is where God may be found.

(Oratio est ubi invenitur Deus)

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Suffering One.  Amen

In nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi passionati. Amen.

We are offered a threefold school of prayer through which the soul is transformed into the Beloved: namely, physical, mental, and spiritual [prayer].

<Triplex schola orationis praebetur, qua anima transformatur in Amatum, scilicet corporalis, mentalis et supernaturalis>

Prayer is where God may be found.  And there are three schools, that is three parts, of prayer without which God cannot be found. And these are: physical; mental; and supernatural.

Oratio est ubi invenitur Deus. Et sunt tres scholae, id est tres partes orationis, extra quas non invenitur Deus. Est enim oratio corporalis, mentalis et supernaturalis.

[1] Physical [prayer] is what arises from the sound of words and physical exercises, such as genuflections. And I never cease performing these.  For I sometimes wish to exercise mental [prayer] prayer, but am hindered by laziness and drowziness, and I waste time. Thus I exercise myself in physical [prayer], and this physical sends me forth into mental [prayer]. But this must be done attentively. Therefore, when you say “Our Father”, you must consider what it is you say, and not hurry to repeat it a certain number of times, like girls working for wages.

Corporalis est quae fit cum sono verborum et exercitio corporali, ut genuflexionibus. Et hanc nunquam dimitto. Quia enim quandoque volebam me exercere in mentali, et aliquando decipiebar a pigritia et a somno et perdebam tempus, ideo me exerceo in corporali. Et haec corporalis mittit ad mentalem. Debet enim fieri cum attentione, ut, cum dicis “Pater noster”, consideres quid est quod dicis, non quod curras contendens complere certum numerum, sicut mulierculae quae aliqua opera faciunt ad pretium.

[2] Mental [prayer] is when meditation on God so [completely] occupies the mind that it thinks of nothing but God. And if some other thought enters the mind I do not call it mental.  For such prayer paralyzes the tongue so it cannot speak. So completely is the mind filled with God that it is incapable of engaging in thought or speech concerning anything other than God. And from this mental [prayer] we move on to supernatural [prayer].

Mentalis est quando Dei meditatio ita occupat mentem, quod nihil aliud cogitat nisi Deum. Et si aliqua alia cogitatio intrat mentem, non voco eam mentalem. Et ista oratio praecidit linguam, quia non potest loqui. Totaliter enim mens est plena Deo, ita quod circa nihil aliud potest occupari cogitando vel loquendo nisi circa Deum et in Deo. Et ex hac mentali venitur ad supernaturalem.

[3] I refer to [prayer as] as supernatural when the soul is so elevated by this gift of God’s fullness that it expands above its own nature and comprehends more of God than it could otherwise naturally see or comprehend. And knowing that it cannot comprehend, it is unable to explain what it knows; because everything it sees and senses is above its own nature.

Supernaturalem voco illam quando anima ex ista Dei dignatione et repletione in tantum elevatur, quod quasi supra suam naturam extenditur, et comprehendit de Deo plus quam per suam naturam videat posse comprehendi, et cognoscit quod comprehendere non potest, et illud quod cognoscit non potest explicare quia quasi totum quod videt et sentit est supra suam naturam.

In these three schools of prayer, therefore, one comes to know both who one is and who God is. And knowing [God] one loves Him; and loving Him one desires to possess what is loved. And this is the sign of true love: that one who loves is transformed – not partially but completely – into the Beloved.

In istis ergo tribus scholis cognoscit quis se et Deum; et ex quo cognoscit, amat; et ex quo amat, desiderat habere quod amat. Et hoc est signum veri amoris, quod, qui amat, non sui partem sed totum se transformat in amatum.

But because this transformation is neither continuous nor enduring the soul studiously inquires by every means how it may be transformed into the will of the Beloved so that it may again return to this vision; and it seeks for what the Beloved [Himself] loved.

Sed quia haec transformatio non est continua, non durat, capit anima studium inquirendi omnes modos quibus possit transformari in voluntatem Amati ut iterum redeat in illam visionem, et quaerit quae amavit ille quem amat.