3. In the 5th Annotation the Saint says: “It will much benefit him who is receiving the Exercises to enter upon them with a large heart and with liberality towards the Creator and Lord, offering all his desires and liberty to Him, in order that His Divine Majesty may make use of his person and of all he possesses according to His most holy will.” He says elsewhere: “The more liberal one shall show himself towards God, the more liberal he shall find God towards him, and the more fit he shall daily be to receive in greater abundance His graces and spiritual gifts” (Rule 19). 4. Both during the meditations and at all other times of prayer, great fervor should be employed to obtain from the Lord those copious graces which He has in store for us, and which He desires to bestow; but it is a general law of His providence that they must be eagerly asked for, and to the best of our power deserved by our efforts and co-operation. If these means are diligently employed, we can indulge a quiet confidence of great results; for the Lord does not invite us to a rich banquet without providing for the full satisfaction of His guests. THE FIRST DAY The first day of the retreat is mainly devoted to what St. Ignatius calls “_The Principle and Foundation_.” Christ bids us act like “a wise man that built his house upon a rock,—and it fell not because it was founded on a rock” (St. Matth. vii, 24). The truth now considered is the rock on which the whole structure of our spirituality is to be built. Bartoli, in his life of St. Ignatius, narrates that a learned Doctor of the University of Paris, Martin Olave, used to say that one single hour spent in meditating on this foundation had taught him more than long years of theological studies. Such too has been the experience of many others. Father Everard Mercurian spoke of this foundation as alone sufficient to effect the most astonishing changes in a soul, by uprooting all its earthly affections and directing its desires to God alone. THE FIRST MEDITATION On the End of Man The first part of the Foundation is: “_Man was created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul._” To begin any of our meditations well, St. Ignatius bids us stand, for the space of a _Pater Noster_, one or two paces from the place at which we are to meditate, and with our mind raised on high, consider how God looks down upon us, and then adore Him with an act of reverence and self-humiliation. Then follows the _Preparatory Prayer_, which is also the same for all the meditations. It is to ask our Lord for grace that all the acts of our memory, our understanding and our will may throughout the meditation tend directly to the service and praise of the Divine Majesty.