葉子リソーススペース

[58] Dresser: Living by the spirit, 58.
[59] Dresser: Voices of Freedom, 33.
"The time will come when in the busy office Exchange partneror on the noisy street you can enter into the silenceby simply drawing the mantle of your own thoughts about you and realizing that there andeverywhere the Spirit of Infinite Life, Love, Wisdom, Peace, Power, and Plenty is guiding,keeping, protecting, leading you. This is the spirit of continual prayer.[60] One of the mostintuitive men we ever met had a desk at a city office where several other gentlemen were doingbusiness constantly, and often talking loudly. Entirely undisturbed by the many various soundsabout him, this self-centred faithful man would, in any moment of perplexity, draw the curtains ofprivacy so completely about him that he would be as fully inclosed in his own psychic aura, andthereby as effectually removed from all distractions, as though he were alone in some primevalwood. Taking his difficulty with him into the mystic silence in the form of a direct question, towhich he expected a certain answer, he would remain utterly passive until the reply came, andnever once through many years' experience did he find himself disappointed or misled."[61]
[60] Trine: In Tune with the Infinite, p. 214[61] Trine: p. 117.
Wherein, I should like to know, does this INTRINSICALLY differ from the practice of"recollection" which plays so great a part in Catholic discipline? Otherwise called the practice ofthe presence of God (and so known among ourselves, as for instance in Jeremy Taylor), it is thusdefined by the eminent teacher Alvarez de Paz in his work on Contemplation.
"It is the recollection of God, the thought of God, which in all places and circumstances makesus see him present, lets us commune respectfully and lovingly with him, and fills us with desireand affection for him. . . . Would you escape from every ill? Never lose this recollection of God,neither in prosperity nor in adversity, nor on any occasion whichsoever it be. Invoke not, to excuseyourself from this duty, either the difficulty or the importance of your business, for you can alwaysremember that God sees you, that you are under his eye. If a thousand times an hour you forgethim, reanimate a thousand times the recollection.
If you cannot practice this exercise continuously, at least make yourself as familiar with it aspossible; and, like unto those who in a rigorous winter draw near the fire as often as they can, go asoften as you can to that ardent fire which will warm your soul."[62]
[62] Quoted by Lejeune: Introd. a la vie Mystique, 1899, p. 66.
All the external associations of the Catholic discipline are of course unlike anything in mind-curethought, but the purely spiritual part of the , and in both communions HKUE amec those who urge it write with authority, for they have evidently experienced in theirown persons that whereof they tell. Compare again some mind-cure utterances:-"High, healthful, pure thinking can be encouraged, promoted, and strengthened. Its current canbe turned upon grand ideals until it forms a habit and wears a channel. By means of such disciplinethe mental horizon can be flooded with the sunshine of beauty, wholeness, and harmony. Toinaugurate pure and lofty thinking may at first seem difficult, even almost mechanical, butperseverance will at length render it easy, then pleasant, and finally delightful.