FIRST EXERCISE
IT IS A MEDITATION WITH THE THREE POWERS ON THE FIRST, THE SECOND AND THE THIRD SIN
It contains in it, after one Preparatory Prayer and two Preludes, three chief
Points and one ColloquyPrayerThe Preparatory Prayer is to ask grace of God our Lord that all my
intentions, actions and operations may be directed purely to the service and praise
of His Divine Majesty.
First PreludeThe First Prelude is a composition, seeing the place.
Here it is to be noted that, in a visible contemplation or meditation -- as, for
instance, when one contemplates Christ our Lord, Who is visible -- the composition
will be to see with the sight of the imagination the corporeal place where the thing
is found which I want to contemplate. I say the corporeal place, as for instance, a
Temple or Mountain where Jesus Christ or Our Lady is found, according to what I
want to contemplate. In an invisible contemplation or meditation -- as here on the
Sins -- the composition will be to see with the sight of the imagination and consider
that my soul is imprisoned in this corruptible body, and all the compound in this
valley, as exiled among brute beasts: I say all the compound of soul and body.
Second PreludeThe second is to ask God our Lord for what I want and desire.
The petition has to be according to the subject matter; that is, if the
contemplation is on the Resurrection, one is to ask for joy with Christ in joy; if it is
on the Passion, he is to ask for pain, tears and torment with Christ in torment.
Here it will be to ask shame and confusion at myself, seeing how many have
been damned for only one mortal sin, and how many times I deserved to be
condemned forever for my so many sins.
NoteBefore all Contemplations or Meditations, there ought always to be
made the Preparatory Prayer, which is not changed, and the two Preludes already
mentioned, which are sometimes changed, according to the subject matter.
First PointThe first Point will be to bring the memory on the First Sin,
which was that of the Angels, and then to bring the intellect on the same,
discussing it; then the will, wanting to recall and understand all this in order to
make me more ashamed and confound me more, bringing into comparison with the
one sin of the Angels my so many sins, and reflecting, while they for one sin were
cast into Hell, how often I have deserved it for so many.
I say to bring to memory the sin of the Angels, how they, being created in
grace, not wanting to help themselves with their liberty to reverence and obey their
Creator and Lord, coming to pride, were changed from grace to malice, and hurled
from Heaven to Hell; and so then to discuss more in detail with the intellect: and
then to move the feelings more with the will.
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