September 21, 2026
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon the first remedy to be applied to the digressions of the imagination. It consists in repressing curiosity, which desires to see everything, to know everything, and to hear everything. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to be more modest in the use we make of our eyes, and more reserved in regard to questions about things there is no need for us to know; 2d, if others give us news which we have not asked for, to receive it with moderation, almost with indifference, and with none of the avidity which puts the mind into a state of disorder. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the advice of the Holy Ghost: Watch over yourselves, and take heed of what you hear (Ecclus. xiii. 16).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore our divine Saviour in the divine use which He made of His imagination. He never occupied it with vain and superfluous ideas, but much rather with useful and holy ones, keeping it always subject to the will of His Father, and making it serve only for His adorable designs. Let us render our homage to this divine Saviour, and ask for grace to imitate Him.
FIRST POINT
The Influence of Curiosity upon the Disorders of the Imagination.
Curiosity represents all exterior objects in the imagination as in a mirror, wherein are reflected all our sensations, and wherein they are preserved for a long time, even after they have passed away; for, when ceasing to see objects we do not cease to imagine them. Once perceived, they remain within us in the imagination, which, a too faithful guardian, represents them to us without waiting for us to ask for them, often, even, just when we do not wish it. Some time since, a curious object or a beautiful spectacle offered itself to our sight. Unmortified as we were, we looked at this object with an avidity which approached very nearly to passion; and, as a punishment for this imprudence, the imagination reproduces it to us at prayer, at meditation, at our different exercises of piety, and that in pictures so full of life and truth that we seem to see it once more, and imagine we are speaking with people even months and years afterwards; for it has the dreadful talent of ceaselessly prolonging the existence even of things which exist no longer, and to make the most distant facts present. And this is the reason why we have so much difficulty in praying, in living in recollection, in preserving interior peace, in acquiring true and solid piety. Let us examine ourselves upon so important a subject.
SECOND POINT
The Necessity and Manner of Correcting Curiosity.
To give a free course to curiosity, to endeavor to see, know, and hear everything, and, after that, to complain of the ramblings of the imagination, of distractions in prayer, of importunate images which pursue us and keep us in a state of incessant dissipation, is to imitate the child who, placing an object before a mirror, would be offended at seeing it represented in it. To read a letter with too much human eagerness, to let our eyes wander with entire freedom along streets, greedily and inquisitively to ask about all that is being said or done, to read newspapers with passion, and books which contain things more or less interesting, and, after that, to expect that our interior will have an aptitude for prayer, and that the imagination will leave us at peace, is to desire to obtain calm out of a tempest, light out of darkness, order and peace out of turmoil; it is to desire the impossible. Therefore we read of a St. Charles, that, when worldly things were spoken of in his presence, he kept himself on his guard, that he might not be taken up by them. All the saints have acted in the same manner. Occupied with their souls and the duties of their position, they felt little curiosity to hear all that was going on, and it was thus that they preserved themselves from the greater portion of the ramblings of the imagination. Following their example, we ought to watch over our eyes, and deprive them of seeing what it is not necessary for them to see; we ought to watch over our words, and not ask for news or indulge in questions about things we have no need to know; we ought to watch over our thoughts, and not allow them freedom to wander and be occupied with a thousand useless objects or a thousand reveries; otherwise the imagination seizes upon them as realities, presents them to the soul with their forms and circumstances, and places them on the scene, accompanied by things and persons. We see them, we hear them, we enjoy their society, we exhaust ourselves with desires, seeking for means to reach the phantom which we pursue; and nothing more is wanting to dissipate our interior and trouble our exercises of piety. The spirit of the world is to desire to know everything, to snatch at all kinds of news, and to fill ourselves with a thousand vain things. The spirit of God, on the contrary, leads us to ignore voluntarily all which is of no use in regard to our spiritual advancement and the duties of our state. Happy ignorance which renders the knowledge of divine things easy to the soul, which disengages it from all that might disturb its peace, and renders it so entirely mistress of itself that it disposes of itself at the good pleasure of its virtue! Let us here examine ourselves. How many times have we been uneasy on account of our having learned what there was no necessity for us to know, and preoccupied about things which we could perfectly well do without?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.