Preliminary note: There are no more beautiful prayers than that one that our Savior himself taught us, namely, the Our Father, or the Angel of the Incarnation’s salutation to Mary, or the everlasting canticle of heaven: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

A few practical rules to achieve this end:

— During the First Week I will not allow myself to think of things that make me feel happy or joyful, such as the glories of heaven, the Resurrection, and so forth. The reason for this is that every joyous thought prevents me from experiencing sorrow and pain for my sins. I should rather force myself to think about death and judgment.

— During the Second Week I will call to mind frequently the life of Christ our Lord, from the mysteries that I have already contemplated up to the one I am presently contemplating.

— During the Third Week I will banish joyful thoughts, even if they are good and holy. Rather I will awaken in myself thoughts of sorrow, repentance, or interior suffering by reminding myself of the burden and sufferings that Christ our Lord took on from the time of his birth down to the mystery of the Passion, in which I am at the present time involved.
— During the Fourth Week I will direct my memory and thoughts to subjects that cause me to feel happiness, pleasure, and spiritual joy, such as the glories of heaven, intimacy with God, etc.

— The bodily position I take and the physical setting of the place where I am during prayer have an influence on that prayer. So, in addition to looking at my inner dispositions, I shall pay attention to the external behavior and circumstances surrounding my prayer. Whether I should pray in a lighted place or in a darkened room, inside or outdoors, in a place that is cold or warm—these are factors that help some feel joyful or sorrowful; they should be used to facilitate prayer.

— During the retreat, no matter what week I am in, I will avoid anything that can distract me, and I will withdraw from conversing with others except in cases of necessity.

— Some form of penance will be useful, particularly in the First and Third Weeks. One should practice penance in the Second Week if the mystery he is meditating on suggests it.

— After getting into bed at night, just before falling asleep, I will think of the subject of my next day’s meditation, and if I wake up during the night I will think about it again. In the morning when I get up and while I am dressing, I will do my best to put myself in that frame of mind that best corresponds to the mystery I am going to be meditating on soon and throughout the day.

— Nighttime often makes prayer easy because of its silence and solitude. But it is most important that the retreatant first take into consideration his age, temperament, and situation in making up his schedule of prayer.

— St. Ignatius foresaw that the retreatant could, if he so desired, attend the singing of the Divine Office when it is celebrated in a nearby church.

— Before beginning prayer, I will refresh my spirit for a moment and put myself in a state of interior peace. I shall do this by sitting down for a few moments or by walking around a bit (whatever seems best). During this time I will call to mind what I am about to do and why I am about to do it.

— Then I will place myself in the presence of God: “I will stand for the space of an Our Father, a step or two before the place where I am to meditate or contemplate, and, with my mind raised on high, consider how God our Lord watches me. Then I will make an act of reverence or humility.”

— Next I will recite the preparatory prayer. This consists of asking God our Lord “for the grace that all my intentions, actions, and operations may be ordered purely to the service and praise of his Divine Majesty”. This preparatory prayer is extremely important. It satisfies an essential requisite of every prayer, that is, a purification of thoughts and heart, a purification that in the normal course of events will gradually become perfected as the soul makes progress in the retreat.

— Following this comes the composition of place. Generally this is made before those contemplations or meditations that contain some potentially visible features. It consists of seeing with the eyes of the imagination or recalling the real, actual, historic, concrete place where the action of the meditation took place or where the persons I am considering lived.

Also, the composition of place can be made before a meditation whose content is purely spiritual. Then it consists of the imagination’s creating a type of symbol that stands for the truth upon which I am meditating. It can also be associated with a Gospel scene. Its purpose is to create in me a “setting” for my imagination.

The use of the imagination is tricky. An image should be used in prayer only insofar as it helps us fix our interior seeing, but as soon as its purpose is realized, we should not hold on to the image. We should go beyond it in order to enter into a true contemplation.

— Finally, I will make a petition for the grace I am looking for in the meditation. I will ask God our Lord for “what I want and desire.”

This grace varies according to the theme of the meditation or the subject of the contemplation. For example, in the contemplation on the Resurrection, I shall ask for joy with Christ because of Christ’s joy; in the contemplation on the Passion, I shall ask for sorrow and compassion with Christ in the great affliction he endures.

— What posture should I take during my prayer? Sometimes kneeling, sometimes prostrate upon the floor, sometimes lying on my back, face upward, sometimes sitting down, sometimes standing, the posture that best helps me find what I am seeking.

— I will remain quietly meditating upon the point (a reflection, an affective response) in which I have found what I desire — and I will stay on at that point as long as I feel I have been satisfied.

— I will complete the prayer, no matter how it has gone, with a colloquy, a discussion, or a conversation. I should reserve a long time for this colloquy. Moreover, it is all right for me to use the colloquy during the course of the meditation or contemplation as often as the Holy Spirit inspires me to do so. In fact, it is encouraged.

A colloquy means talking with God, or with the Blessed Virgin Mary, or with some saint, exactly as one talks with another as friends do, or as a son talks with his father or his mother, or as a servant speaks with his master. Sometimes he thanks the other for a favor, sometimes he blames himself for making a mistake, sometimes he …confides with the other about his spiritual affairs, or he may ask him for advice and courage and the like. This conversation ought to be simple and informal, while ever maintaining an attitude of reverence.

— In the colloquy I ought always to speak and pray according to the actual state of my soul. In other words, whether I am tempted or fervent, whether I want this virtue or that, whether I want to get ready to make a particular commitment, or whether I want to be sad or joyful in the mystery I am contemplating—the point is that I should never divorce my here-and-now self from my conversation in the colloquy. The colloquy is also the time to ask again and again for what I want. A person can make one sole colloquy to Christ our Savior, but if the subject of his meditation or his own inclination calls for it, he can make three colloquies: one to our Lady, the Mother of Jesus; another to Christ our Lord; and a third to the Father.

— Every colloquy ends with a vocal prayer. For example, the colloquy with God our Father ends with the Our Father, the colloquy with Jesus with the prayer Soul of Christ, and the colloquy with the Blessed Virgin with the Hail Mary.

— It will be beneficial if, after completing the Exercise, I make a brief review of how the prayer went: that is, to go over the meditation or contemplation and if it was successful to thank the Lord; if it was made poorly to seek the reason why (my preparation, recollection, manner of praying). After I have found it I shall then ask pardon of God and make a firm and precise resolution concerning the cause of the failure in order to meet with success in the future.

Should I keep a journal and write down a few notes after each prayer? That depends on my preference and especially whether or not a journal is useful. If one thinks he should write down certain movements “of the Holy Spirit in his soul”, there is no general direction other than that he should be guided by simplicity, moderation, and sincerity.

Every master of the spiritual life recommends that the morning spiritual exercise be recalled from time to time during the day, even if only for a brief moment. The reason is to enable the soul to recall how it was well ordered to God’s will. And, in order to do this, these experts suggest the use of a very easy procedure which they call “ejaculations”—that is, short prayers directed toward the Lord, such as “O God, come to my aid”, “Jesus, Lord”, “Jesus, have mercy on me”. Benedict, Bernard, Bruno, Teresa, and Francis Xavier were all in the habit of making such short prayers. Such aspirations are genuine cries of distress or of love that spring up from our very selves; they can be quite simple, yet really solid.