France -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; French fiction -- Translations into English
“The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers
of the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to
perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the
grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words of
mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you may
be after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, Seers,
Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and who
proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere and
rise at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive the fire
of Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. He loves
to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way
to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful
that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single
cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such
beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth! Let
the hunger and thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as the hart panting
for the water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its wings; tears, those
blossoms of repentance, shall be the celestial baptism from which your
nature will issue purified. Cast yourself on the breast of the stream in
Prayer! Silence and meditation are the means of following the Way. God
reveals Himself, unfailingly, to the solitary, thoughtful seeker.
“It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so
long has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you
from the beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon-day
to your soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the light
shall bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they will
have changed to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker meditates; the
Righteous acts; but he who stands upon the borders of the Divine World
prays; and his prayer is word, thought, action, in one! Yes, prayer
includes all, contains all; it completes nature, for it reveals to you
the mind within it and its progression. White and shining virgin of all
human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and
strong companion partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer
will give you the key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong,
like all that is single and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen
rests, nevertheless, on the material world; she takes possession of it;
like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of light. The universe belongs
to him who wills, who knows, who prays; but he must will, he must know,
he must pray; in a word, he must possess force, wisdom, and faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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