General Instructions for Mental Prayer

For all mental prayer exercises:

Kneel (unless doing so causes distraction, such as pain, to the extent of failure to persevere in prayer). Close your eyes. Make the Sign of the Cross upon yourself while simultaneously saying the Invocation (i.e., “In the Name of the Father...”). Fold or clasp your hands together in the Catholic manner (fingers straight; hands in front of the chest and neck, the right thumb crossed over the top of the left thumb – the resulting cross of which may be kissed (a pious practice).

Close your eyes (unless having opened or slivered eyes aids your focus better).

Pray a prefatory prayer in preparation for conducting a forthcoming mental prayer, petitioning assistance (for focus, perseverance, devotion, sincerity, integrity) in your session of mental prayer from, particularly, the Holy Ghost, St. Mary, and one’s own Guardian Angel. The Holy Ghost is especially important to include because when a Catholic cannot persevere in prayer by his own natural powers (such as from exhaustion or intense distraction), the Holy Ghost sustains his act of praying, and He supernaturalizes prayers. St. Mary is important to include because she perfects prayers mediated by her and she directs undirected prayers and misdirected prayers.

In meditation, when your mind wanders from being focused, gently return to focus upon the object of meditation (e.g., God) or upon your intellectual, discursive, reasoned, logical reflection upon it, or the topic under consideration. In contemplation, when your mind wanders from being focused, gently return it to silence, to the outright rejection of thoughts (if possible), or to the momentary, volition-detached observation of the thoughts and the momentary, volition-detached allowance of thoughts, viz., permitting, without any emotional license (e.g., without enjoyment or dread), the natural course of the thoughts, i.e., permitting their inherent fulfillment and termination, permitting their inherent arising and subsiding. For both meditation and contemplation, repeatedly and continually return to focus as needed. To aid in focus, or in refocusing, vocally or mentally articulate the name of the object of your mental prayer, or its attributes.

Rejecting distractions and all temptations to any kind of distraction, and immediately returning to focus, is the two-fold key to perseverance and devotion in prayer. Reject all distractions and all temptations to distraction, even those to pious acts (e.g., making the Sign of the Cross or bowing your head upon saying the name of Jesus) that you discern as pangs of scrupulosity rather than as acts of charity from grace, as it is not a sin to refuse to do a pious act, especially one stemming from scrupulosity. In meditation, maintain single-pointed focus upon the object or topic, or your reflection thereupon. In contemplation, maintain single-pointed focus upon maintaining your mental silence in order to increase the receptivity of your mind. For those with racing or manic thoughts, excessive ruminating anxiety, etc., more effort and more grace will be needed relative to those possessing equanimity.

To add a sense of sacredness to an exercise, you may add elements of the sacred language of Ecclesiastical (Italianate) Latin. For example, “the Sacred Heart of Jesus” in Ecclesiastical Latin is “Sacratissimum Cor Iesu.” Conventionally, that is abbreviated to “Cor Iesu” (“Heart of Jesus”). But beware that the use of words that are not of one’s native language, or that have not been deeply internalized by oneself, can be much less powerful for one’s mental or vocal acts.

Note that it is a pious practice to slightly bow one’s head every time he speaks or hears the name “Jesus” in any language, except when it is taken in vain – but do not let this become a pang of scrupulosity if it distracts you from focus, as it is not a sin to refuse to do so.

Aside from practice in sessions, mental prayer exercises are additionally efficacious for the impromptu rejection and replacement of temptations to sin, temptations to distraction, evil thoughts, and idle thoughts. Replacement, i.e., thinking or focusing on something else (e.g., a physical task), is usually necessary to keep the renounced temptations or distractions away.

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