And it caused me to reflect on the concept of Interior Recollection.
I have this beautiful little red book all about Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, written by Father Croiset, S.J. who was Rector of the Jesuit College at Lyons and about whom St. Margaret Mary Alacoque claimed: "By means of a book of Father Croiset, a Jesuit,devotion to the Sacred Heart shall everywhere be spread."
He neatly prepares his pupils for devotion to the Sacred Heart by describing the disposition we must be, in order to obtain this devotion. The first disposition, is a great horror of sin. The second is a lively faith. The third is a real desire to love Jesus Christ. And the Fourth, I shall share with you here: Interior Recollection. Fr. Croiset S.J says:
"The Fourth Disposition in which we ought to be if we are to taste the full sweetness of this devotion, and obtain all its fruit, is that of interior recollection. It is not in a state of disturbance that God makes His presence felt: and a mind habitually dissipated by a crowd of idle thoughts is not in a likely state to hear the voice of Him Who does not communicate Himself to the soul, nor speak to the heart, except in solitude.
This interior Recollection is the foundation of the entire spiritual edifice of souls; so much so, that without this it is impossible to rise towards perfection and attain to a closer union with God, Who dwells only in peacefulness of the spirit and in the retirement of a soul freed from the entanglement of external affairs. And it may be asserted that the commonest source of our imperfections is this want of recollectedness, and that a man little given to interior reflection is never very devout. "Whence comes it," said a holy man, "that so many pious persons, who have such good intentions, who devote themselves to good works, and who appear to be doing all that is necessary to make themselves saints, nevertheless get so little profit from their prayers, Communions, and reading, and after so many years' practice of all the exercises of the spiritual life [by this Fr. Croiset means the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises], rarely show that they have at all benefited by them? How is it that their passions are still so strong, and that their defects are just what they always used to be? The only reason is their want of interior recollection. These persons are too unreserved, too anxious to talk about themselves and their feelings. Hence, countless faults escape their notice, a thousand thoughtless speeches, spurts of ill-temper, unrestrained impulses, and acts whose motive is purely natural. All this would not befall them, did they but keep a constant watch upon the regulation of their interior conduct, with a view to uproot their passions and self-love."
This disspation of pious souls is often the result of one of the most cunning wiles of the devil, who turns to his own account their practice of good works, by obliging them to fritter their energies abroad, and for this purpose to quit the trenches, so to speak, where they were sheltered from his darts. A soul, drawn by a certain inexplicable gratification to be found in the throng of exterior actions, beguiled by the specious pretext of doing much for God, wastes her strength and insensibly loses that union with God, and that sweet sense of His presence, without which we may toil so much, but make so little way. A dissipated soul (a soul that allows itself any number of disctractions), is like a lost and wandering sheep, which soon becomes a prey to the wolf. It is not easy for us, after this vagabondage, to re-enter into ourselves, fo besides that the preference for God is a grace not always at our own disposal, the soul is no longer able to rid herself of the numberless exterior objects which absorb her attention; she has lost the taste for spiritual things by too long a sojourn, as it were, in a foreign land.
My God! What does not a soul lose by incessantly wasting herself abroad, on exterior things! what inspirations and what graces she renders unavailing, and of what favours does she not deprive herself, by a want of interior recollection! "I must," says a great servant of God, "choose one of two things: either to become an interior man, or else lead an impotent and useless life." Without this recollectedness, far from fulfilling God's designs, we shall not even know what they are; and we shall never reach the degree of holiness our state of life demands, much less attain perfection.
In fact, a man who is not of a recollected spirit, wanders hither and thither, nowhere finding repose; seeks eagerly all sorts of things, without finding satisfaction in any; whereas, were he to re-enter within himself, he would find God in the stillness; he would enjoy God, Who by His presence would replenish hiim with such abundance of good things that he would no more wander elsewhere, seeking wherewith to fill the void of his desires. This, with regard to interior persons, is what we can daily see. We imagine their fondness for retirement, their unwillngness to live outside of themselves as it were, to be the result of melancholy. It is nothing of the kind. It is because of the delight they take in their inward converse with God; and, the unspeakale sweetness with which they are filled, makes the amusements and pleasures the world has to offer appear so paltry and so wearisome, that they regard them with disgust. To those who have once tasted what God is, and what spiritual things are, everything that suggests the bondage and contagion of flesh and blood appears insipid; and it may be affirmed that none but interior persons have a true delight in God, and know by experioence what is meant by the sweetness of virtue. They possess Faith, Hope and Charity, in so sublime a manner, that nothing is able to disturb these virtues, within them. Insensibly they find themselves raised above all human creatures, and remain always in the same equal state of mind, immovable in God. From all that they see and all that they hear, they take occasion to rise towards God; and it is God alone Whom they see in His creatures, even as they, who from long gazing at the sun, seem still to see it, whatever may be the objects which afterwards meet their eyes.
And it must not be supposed that this recollectedness has the effect of making people idle. A truly interior man is active, and renders more services to the Church in a single day, than a hundred persons who are not so could render her during many years, although they possessed more natural talents than he; not only because disspation of mind is a check to the fruits of zeal, but because a man who is not at all interior, and nevertheless labours much, is, at best, a man who works for God, whereas, by means of recollection, it is God Himself Who works in the inward man: this man working only by God, and in accordance with the influence and guidance of the Holy Ghost.
Being occupied with external things is no hindrance to inward recollection, provided that these things are of obligation; and we may very well maintain recollection during action. The greatest saints, who have had the most communication with God, and who, in consequence, have been most recollected, have often been the most unsparing of their trouble in regard to outward matters. Such were the Apostles and apostolic men who have laboured for the salvation of their fellow-men; and, provided that our employments are the fittest means of promoting our constant union with God.
But we must only, as it were, lend our mind to these outward occupations; not give them our heart. God alone must be the spring and groundwork of all our actions, and it is a sign that we are doing them for God, if we can quit them without reluctance, if we continue them without anxiety and chagrin, and if we can bear to be interrupted in them without anger or impatience. This, I repeat, is a sign that we are doing them for God, and not from motives of self-love.
But, in our actual conduct, how different are our intentions from such purity as this! If we dislike what we have to do, how many false reasons we find for dispensing ourselves from doing it; how many excuses for putting it off and then, with what apathy and indifference we accomplish it! If, on the other hand, it fits in with our liking, we feel a delight which at once produces dissipation. The mere dread of not succeeding makes us anxious and unhappy. "
Fr Croiset then goes on to describe 11 means of obtaining interior recollection.
