Of praier that is spedful to gete clennes in herte and vertues.
The Purpose of Prayer
Prayer serves not to inform God of our needs, but to purify the soul as a vessel ready to receive His grace.
Prayer is a profitable and effective way to gain purity of heart by destroying sin and receiving virtues. Not so that by your prayer you should make known to our Lord what you desire—for He knows well enough all that you need—but so that by your prayer you may be made able and ready to receive, as a clean vessel, the grace our Lord freely wills to give you; and that grace cannot be felt until you are purified by the fire of desire in devout prayer.1 While it is true that prayer is not the cause for which our Lord gives grace, it is nonetheless the way by which that freely given grace comes to a soul.
Preparing the Heart for Devotion
The author addresses the practical challenge of overcoming worldly distractions and heaviness to stir the heart toward devotion.
You might want to know how you should pray, what you should focus on during your prayer, and what kind of prayer would be best for you to use.2 As for the first, I answer and say this: When you wake from sleep and are ready to pray, you will feel yourself fleshly and heavy, and always drawn downward into vain thoughts—whether of dreams or fantasies, or the foolish busyness of the world, or of your flesh.34 You need to quicken your heart through prayer and stir it as much as you can toward some devotion.
Read the original Latin
Preyer is profitable and spedful to use for to gete clennesse of herte bi distroynge of synne and receyvynge of vertues. Not for thou schuldest bi thi praier kenne oure Lord what thou desirest, for He knoweth wel ynowgh al that thee nedeth; but for to make thee able and redi bi thi praier that thou myght receyve as a clene vessel the grace that oure Lord wole freeli gyve to thee, whiche grace mai not be felid til thou be purified bi fier of desire in devoute praier. For though it be so that praier is not the cause for whiche our Lord geveth grace, neverthelees it is a weie bi the whiche grace freli gyven cometh to a soule. But now desirest thou peraventure for to knowe hou thu schuldest praie and upon what thynge thu schal sette the poynt of thi thought in thi praier, and also what preier were best to thee for to use. As unto the first, I answere and seie thus: That whan thou art waken of thi sleep and art redi for to preie, thou schalt fele thisilf fleischli and hevy and ai dounward into veyn thoughtes, either of dreemes or of fantasies, or unskilful bisynesse of the world, or of thi fleisch. Thanne bihoveth thee for to quykene thyn herte bi praier and stire it als mykil as thou mai to sum devocioun.
Notes
- 1 ↩ME 'kenne' here means make known / inform, not 'know' in the cognitive sense.
- 2 ↩'the poynt of thi thought' = the point/focus of attention, not a 'point' of doctrine.
- 3 ↩ME 'unskilful bisynesse' = foolish/unwise worldly busyness, not lack of technical skill.
- 4 ↩ME 'ai' = aye, always; rendered as 'always' rather than archaic 'aye'.
Scala Perfectionis (The Scale of Perfection) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent