The Third Spiritual Alphabet

A Franciscan Spiritual Classic on the Prayer of Recollection and Contemplation. From the Introduction: We are told in the Gospel that the first law of life is to ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind.’1 The end of contemplative prayer - or prayer of recollection - is nothing else than the fulfillment of this law. The end of contemplative prayer is nothing else than the fulfillment of the law to love God with all our being. And ‘the art of contemplation’ is nothing else than the application of the demands of love to man’s relation with God. Hence as Fray Francisco de Osuna says: ‘This manner of prayer is called the art of love.’ But he clarifies this definition when he says: ‘Furthermore, it is called union, for when man after this way attains to God, he becomes one spirit with him by an exchange of will, so that man wills nought but what God wills, neither does God withdraw himself from the will of man, but in all things they are one.’ It is important to note that the love of God which is the end of contemplative prayer is the union of man’s will with the divine will by the action of love. In other words contemplative prayer does not aim at inducing a mere sentiment of love but love itself - the union of the two wills of man and of God in mutual love, love as the activity of the will in its union with the divine will; not mere passive sentiment. It is well to understand this, as it marks the distinction between the authentic prayer of contemplation and that pseudo contemplation indulged in by people of a certain temperament. ... And it is in this active conformity of his will with the divine will in love, that the contemplative begins to know God and himself with a new, more intimate knowledge and understanding. Before he begins to experience this closer intimacy with God, he may be said rather to know about God and the divine mysteries of life; now he begins really to know God and his relation to God in some way as he knows himself. This knowledge, as the experts in contemplative prayer insist, can be gained only in prayer itself: ‘No man can teach it, but only God.’ All that the most expert master can teach us is the road and the self-discipline by which one can arrive at the prayer itself. There have been a multitude of books written on ‘the art of contemplative prayer,’ not all very helpful to the beginner. Moreover, in many of these books the simple rules of guidance are so embedded in disquisitions on the personal experiences of the writer, as frequently to bewilder the mere novice. The merit of The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Fray Francisco de Osuna, here given in an English version, is that notwithstanding its lack of arrangement, it does address itself to the beginner and keeps in view the special need of the beginner. Fray Osuna starts out with the principle that contemplative prayer is for the many, not for the few; and he is at pains to encourage the normal good Catholic to practice it, warning him not to be put off by the class of writers and spiritual directors who so fence off the prayer of contemplation with warnings and danger signals, as to discourage all but the most hardy and adventurous spirits. One recommendation this book has: it was the reading of The Third Spiritual Alphabet which led St. Teresa of Jesus, in her early timorous days, to go forward in the way of mental prayer—a precious encouragement to one who at that early period and for many years after, received nothing but discouragement from her spiritual advisers. There are many in like circumstances who have not been so fortunate as S. Teresa. Fr. Cuthbert, O.S.F.C.