September 22, 2026
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon two new remedies suitable for employing against the ramblings of the imagination, which consist in correcting: 1st, frivolity of the mind; 2d, attachments of the heart. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to send away all useless thoughts and replace them by sweet pictures of Jesus Christ and His mysteries; 2d, to detach ourselves from all to which we cling the most, in order to prevent preoccupations which distract the imagination. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the remark made by the Evangelist upon the Blessed Virgin, that she fed her mind and her heart upon all she heard which was edifying: "But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart" (Luke ii. 19).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Our Lord in the supreme dominion He maintained over His mind, His heart, and His imagination. Let us admire the perfect manner in which all was regulated, and, prostrate at His feet, let us beg Him to help us to keep our imagination in subjection, seeing that it is an enemy greedy of independence and possessed of the strength of many years of empire; an enemy which, being chased away, always returns; which, being cast down to the ground, rises again; which, being conquered, renews the attack. Let us ask of Him to infuse into our heart a love which, although it may ceaselessly give way to distractions, ceaselessly returns; which, ceaselessly led away from God, ceaselessly comes back to Him; and in this way to destroy in us the frivolity of mind and the attachments of the heart whence so many disorderly imaginations proceed.
FIRST POINT
We must Correct Frivolity of Mind, the Habitual Cause of the Ramblings of the Imagination.
When we have had the unhappiness of contracting a habit of frivolity of mind which amuses itself with vain thoughts, which holds in aversion grave and serious reflections, the wandering and uneasy imagination, having nothing to fix it, runs from one object to another, and turns with every wind, like a fugitive slave who is not at work in his master's house. Hardly have we begun a prayer than our imagination steals us from ourselves and runs to all the ends of the earth. It is otherwise with serious and recollected souls. The serious thoughts with which they habitually occupy themselves offer to the imagination nothing but holy images, which fix its frivolity and inconstancy. David beholds God taking him by the hand to guide him (Ps. lxxii. 24); Jerome, in the desert, sees solemn pictures of the last judgment, the dead issuing from the dust at the sound of the trumpet, and the Sovereign Judge descending from the clouds. The saints picture to themselves heaven with its throne, the crown and the glory which await them; the joys of the holy family, which is composed of God our Father, of Mary our mother, of the saints our brethren. At other times they transport themselves by means of their imagination to the crib, to Nazareth, to Calvary, or else they represent to themselves Jesus conversing with men, performing the actions they themselves have to do, and they take Him as their pattern. Is this the use we make of our imagination? Do we not belong to those frivolous minds who will not occupy this wandering faculty with anything useful that may interest and captivate it?
SECOND POINT
We must Correct the Attachments of the Heart which are a no less Fruitful Cause of the Disorders of the Imagination.
The imagination is a slave of the heart; it follows it wherever it goes, and is at its orders to paint the objects which interest it, which excite its complaisance or its aversion. Do we feel too purely natural a friendship for some one, the imagination brings him before us, we converse with him and take pleasure in his company. Do we, on the other hand, feel an aversion for him, imagination cites the person before our tribunal, we dispute with him, we prove to him that he is in the wrong, and we overwhelm him with reproaches. We are passionately attached to some affair or other; the imagination preoccupies itself with it, and we think less of what we do than of what we desire to do. We allow our heart to be too strongly attached to the success of an enterprise; the imagination seizes upon the good that we desire or the evil that we fear, troubles us with joy or casts us down with fear. Lastly, we are dominated by pride or vanity; immediately the imagination asks us what is said of us, and makes us go down into the conscience of another person in order that we may read therein whether we are esteemed or misunderstood; at other times it represents to us the eulogiums and the applause which we believe to be due to us, and makes us assist at interviews in which our merit is brought to light. If any one has the misfortune to wound our self-love in the slightest degree, it forms an odious portrait of him, which we contemplate with annoyance and displeasure. There is no longer possible for us any tranquil reflection or any work. If, on the contrary, friendship and esteem have been shown us, the imagination fills us with pictures of our own merit, makes us contemplate by day and night pictures of our own excellence, transports us into the future, amuses us with chimerical projects, and desires that we should be spoken of. Let us conclude from these remarks, to which so many others might be added, how important it is to detach ourselves from all which is not God or according to God if we desire to repress the ramblings of the imagination.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.