This volume is a collection of original texts on mental prayer from the letters, writings on prayer, and talks and retreats given by William Joseph Chaminade; therefore, the language is from the 19th century.

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This volume is a collection of original texts on mental prayer from the letters, writings on prayer, and talks and retreats given by William Joseph Chaminade; therefore, the language is from the 19th century. Father Chaminade believed the religious habit was to be interior, developed through the prayer of faith. "We must be the image of Jesus Christ," he said. "His actions must be the model of ours. To make a copy, one must first cast one's eyes upon the original." This is the goal of the prayer of faith.

Partly because this mission was conceived in an inclusive manner, the composition of the Society of Mary differed from that of the Christian Brothers. It was not a community of lay religious schoolmasters. It was constituted by lettered and unlettered laymen of all social classes and by priests—all of whom enjoyed a relatively equal status and membership in the Society, engaged in a variety of works all focused by participation in Mary’s eternal role of doing for people in every age what she had done in the fullness of time: nurturing Christ. According to Chaminade, this role of Mary was Christian education conceived in a broad perspective. Furthermore, unlike the Christian Brothers, the Society of Mary was complemented by a female religious congregation and by lay organizations (Sodalities), and all parts were joined together by the common mission shared.

This difference between the Society of Mary and the Christian Brothers can be ascribed partially to the different ecological contexts from which they arose. Jean Baptiste de la Salle was laboring in the highly stratified, aristocratic society of late 17th century France, which generally neglected the education of poor children. This society’s working class or poor parents usually received little instruction and were occupied in gaining a livelihood for themselves and their families, so they could not give their children the needed instruction or a suitable Christian education.

Furthermore, the primary school teachers were generally very deficient in training and character. What the situation demanded, La Salle believed, was a body of competent, dedicated, and virtuous individuals who, both as a profession and religious vocation, embraced teaching in mainly poor primary school. On the other hand, Chaminade—while recognizing the tremendous contribution these men continued to offer the Church and society in post-revolutionary France—was convinced the new world that had been ushered in also required a new organization born from the new times.

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Key to Foreign Language Titles

Preface

Part One: The First Texts

The Direction of Miss De Lamourous

The Writings of the Napoleonic Era

Footnotes to Part One

Part Two: Methods of Mental Prayer

Father Lalanne’s Method of Mental Prayer

The Other Method

The Common Method

The Appended Texts

Documents

Footnotes to Part Two

Part Three: Conferences and Retreats

Retreat of 1818

Conferences to the Daughters of Mary

Retreat of 1820

Retreat of 1821

Retreat of 1822

Retreat of 1823

Some Other Retreats

Appendix: Meditations on Selfishness

Footnotes to Part Three

Part Four: Guidelines for the Method of Mental Prayer

Precis of Mental Prayer

Guidelines for the Method of Mental Prayer

The Mental Prayer of Faith and of the Presence of God

Practice of Mental Prayer

Method of Mental Prayer on the Creed

Mental Prayer and the Rules

Mental Prayer in the Letters

Appendix

Footnotes to Part Four

Biblical Index

Index of the Names of Persons and Places

Alphabetical Index

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Reference