September 19, 2026
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon the mortification of the imagination, and we shall see: 1st, that our happiness in this world depends upon the government of our imagination and the repression of its wanderings; 2d, that nothing less than our eternal salvation is implicated in it. We will then make the resolution: 1st, in the morning, as soon as we awake, to employ our minds with holy thoughts and our hearts with pious affections, in order to prevent the wanderings of our imagination; 2d, to recollect ourselves at different moments during the day, to see whether we have yielded to our imagination, and to renew our resolution to combat it. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Holy Ghost: Do not give up your heart to your imaginations (Ecclus. xxxiv. 6).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus Christ in the desert, raised by the devil upon a pinnacle of the temple and transported thence to a high mountain, where the tempter shows Him all the kingdoms of the earth: a striking type of our imagination, which transports us in a moment from one end of the earth to another, preoccupies us with pictures of exterior things, and tries to seduce us by its phantasies. Rebellious to reason, it revolts against the empire which we wish to exercise over it; and even when we are the most determined to combat it, it escapes from us and has already gone all around the world before we ourselves have perceived what it was doing. O Jesus, tempted in the desert, teach us to resist the temptations which our imagination excites in us!
FIRST POINT
Our Happiness in this World Depends upon the Government of our Imagination and the Repression of its Digressions
There are no beings more unhappy than are men who have an ungovernable imagination; the past, the present, and the future—everything troubles them. The past shows them a humiliation, a reverse, a disagreeable incident which had annoyed them at the time; and immediately the imagination seizes hold of the annoyance which exists no longer, increases, exaggerates it, and makes them feel it again in a hundred-fold degree, and always more keenly, changing the slightest trouble into an overwhelming one and rendering what was only a temporary evil permanent. The present annoys and disgusts them; they imagine they would be better placed anywhere than where they are; that others, who less deserve it, are happier than they. They are never wholly devoted to what they are doing; always their imagination distracts them from it, fatigues them with innumerable fancies and with vain phantoms, or with shame and remorse for their frivolity. The future does not less importune them, now by means of a pretended happiness towards which they eagerly rush, and which soon afterwards they despair of obtaining, and now by the apprehension of trials and imaginary crosses, which make them suffer as much as though they were real. In this way they become unbearable to themselves, always uneasy, and sad, discontented, and inconstant; then their imagination makes them see, in the minds of others, suspicions, contempt, hatred, bad intentions which do not exist, and they are overwhelmed; it inspires them with uneasiness and alarm which have no foundation, and they allow themselves to be cast down. In order to chase away annoyance and trouble, they would like to apply themselves to some serious pursuits, to some solid reading; but their imagination still distracts and absorbs their thoughts; they become disgusted and give up the attempt. Is not all this our history, and how often have we not sacrificed our happiness to vain phantoms?
SECOND POINT
Our Eternal Salvation Depends upon the Governing of our Imagination and the Repression of its Wanderings
Who does not know, in fact, that the imagination is the place where all the passions take their birth and their increase and strength, the heart being attracted to an object from love towards it, or turned away from it by hatred, according as the imagination depicts it as being good or evil? Who does not know that when all kinds of objects are allowed to be impressed upon the imagination, there is insinuated into the mind more than can be expressed in words, which not only robs it of devotion and charity, but which exposes the soul to speedy loss? It is from this excess of liberty granted to the imagination that proceed dangerous thoughts, impure images, temptations of all kinds. If the world is so dangerous for those who frequent it, it is not less so, nay, it is even sometimes more so, for those who allow themselves to be introduced into it by means of their imagination, because it is then more seductive; the scenes it presents to the soul are more varied, and make a more immediate impression upon the senses, inflame the desires, awaken the passion which was lying dormant, increase and strengthen that which was ruling. Jerome, in the desert, saw in his imagination all the pomp of Rome; Augustine, in his retreat, saw all the pleasures of the world dragging him along, as it were, by his garments, and calling out to him: What! wouldst thou forsake us forever? What! wilt thou have nothing more to do with us? Happy those great saints who combated their imagination; otherwise they would have been lost. But if the imagination did not drag us into these states of great disorder, it is at least certain that it would be an obstacle to the acquisition of all virtue. We cannot expect from a soul which is the slave of imagination either the habit of reflection, which enables us to study, to know, and to superintend ourselves, nor the lively faith which supposes a soul given to reflection; nor the charity which supposes the forgetfulness of the faults and wrongs of our neighbor; nor the modesty which proceeds from calmness and the spirit of order ruling within us; nor the humility which closes the eyes to the picture of its own excellence, drawn in the imagination by the hand of self-love; nor the spirit of prayer, which is essentially opposed to the wanderings of the imagination. Let us examine ourselves. Have we not taken pleasure in following the digression of our imagination and in busying it with a thousand phantoms?
Resolutions and Spiritual Nosegay as above