On Prayer and The Contemplative Life | Page 2

HEAVEN
QUESTION CLXXIX OF THE DIVISION OF LIFE INTO THE
ACTIVE AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE
QUESTION CLXXX OF THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE
QUESTION CLXXXI OF THE ACTIVE LIFE
QUESTION CLXXXII OF THE COMPARISON BETWEEN THE
ACTIVE AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE
QUESTION CLXXXVI ON THE RELIGIOUS STATE

INDEX
INDEX OF TEXTS QUOTED OR EXPLAINED

INTRODUCTION
The pages which follow call for little introduction. S. Thomas has left
us no formal treatise on Mystical Theology, though his teachings on
this subject have been collected from his various works and combined
to form such a treatise. Especially noteworthy is the work of the
Spanish Dominican Valgornera.[2] No such synthesis has been
attempted here. We have simply taken from the Summa Theologica the
treatises on Religion, on Devotion, Prayer, and the Contemplative Life,
and presented them in an English dress. When occasion offered we
have added to each portion appropriate passages from S. Augustine, S.
Thomas's master, and more rarely from the Commentary on the Summa
by the illustrious Cardinal Cajetan.
And we have been led to do this for several reasons. The Mystical life
is the life of union with God, and it is based essentially on Prayer and
Contemplation. But prayer and contemplation, though simple in
themselves, are yet fraught with difficulties and dangers unless we be
wisely guided. And as Father Faber shrewdly says: when we ask for
instruction in these things, let us by all means make appeal to those
whose names begin with S--let us, in other words, go to God's Saints.
And the reason is simple: these Saints are no mere idle sign-posts who
point the way but stand still themselves; they themselves have been
where they would have us go; they speak from no mere theoretical
knowledge; they themselves have tasted and seen that the Lord is
sweet!
Further, it would have been easy to cull from S. Thomas's writings the
salient points of his teaching on these points, and to have presented
them in an attractive form. But had we done so the teachings of the
Saint would have lost much of their force, and readers might well have
doubted at times whether they really had before them the mind of S.

Thomas or that of the translator. It is preferable to read the Bible than
what men have said about the Bible. Unfortunately, it is the fashion
nowadays to consider S. Thomas's writings "out of date"! If the perusal
of these pages shall have induced some few at least to go to the original
and study it for themselves they will have more than fulfilled the
translator's desires.
Another reason which has weighed much with the translator and
encouraged him to undertake this task has been the suddenly awakened
interest in Mysticism and Mystical studies during the last decade. It has
become the fashion to talk about Mysticism, even to pose as Mystics,
and--need it be said?--those who talk the most on such subjects are
those who know the least. For those who have entered into the secret of
the King are ever the most reticent on such matters. At the same time
we may welcome this recent development, if only as a set-off against
the Spiritualism and occultism which have played such havoc with
souls during a space of over fifty years. The human soul, "naturally
Christian," as Tertullian would say, is also naturally Divine in the sense
that, as S. Augustine so often insists, no rest is possible for it save in
God. Now those who are familiar with the Summa Theologica are
aware that Union with God is its keynote, or rather is the dominant note
which rings out clear again and again with its ever-repeated Sursum
Corda! It is this that gives such special value to the treatises here
presented on Prayer and the Contemplative Life. They flow from the
pen of one who was literally steeped in God and Divine things, and
who is speaking to us of things which he had himself tasted and seen. It
is this that gives such simplicity and charm to the whole of his teaching.
He is not experimenting; he is not speaking of theories; he is portraying
to us what was his everyday life.
Perhaps one of the commonest errors regarding the Spiritual life is the
confusion between the ordinary and the extraordinary ways of God. For
how many does not the Contemplative Life mean the life of ecstasy and
vision with which we are familiar in the lives of the Saints? For S.
Thomas, on the contrary, the Contemplative Life is but the natural life
of a man who is serving God and who devotes a certain portion of his
time to the study and contemplation of Divine things. Ecstasy and

vision he treats of in another place. They occupy a sphere apart. They
belong to