The Wisdom of Martinism

We have gotten some recent questions about French occultism and Martinism. Most folks seem to know the Rene Guenon material (Avaita Vedanta mixed with conservative French politics and Conspiracy Theory) but have not read of the more exciting aspects of sexual magic, Kardec style Spiritism combined with Santeria, Condomble, Voodoun as well as practices like "spiritual blending" and "celestification"Readers with magickal interests usually go straight to Crowley but Crowley actually missed out on the inner teachings of Martinism which is based in French Roman Catholicism. The Plymouth Brethren emphasized the personal relationship with God which is the cornerstone of Thelema as it is of Protestantism. French Martinism starts with the idea that there are Unknown Superiors on the Earth with magical powers and these elite beings run the world. St. Yves d'Alvedre runs this down in his treatise "Archeometre". The Catholic Church is seen as one of many outer courtyards to the one and true inner church. "Cloud on the Sanctuary" is in this vein. Martinism (at it's best) comes straight out of the French Revolution, Theosophy and the strange sexual traditions and perversions within the Monasteries and Convents of France and Spain. The Rene Guenon stuff that you have probably seen is the French equivalent of Clymer---extremely conservative and uptight.


Ten Prayers
by the Unknown Philosopher
Prayer is for our intellectual being
what breathing is for our body.
L.C. de Saint Martin, Le Tableau Naturel, i, p.178.
The teachings of the traditional religions of the West are geared for
the education of infants. There is practically, the works of mystics
excepted, nothing available to adults, regarding the practice of
prayer. Mystical writings being accessible only to the few, modern
adults have looked into meditation as the sole source of spiritual
guidance. Although both techniques have much in common, they
cannot fully replace each other.
Among the very few works dedicated to more mature prayers is:
The Science of Prayer, by Ernest Wood. This short and practical
manual is, I believe, the best introduction to the traditional prayer
techniques of the West.
The ten prayers of Saint-Martin, presented hereafter in the
translation of Arthur E. Waite, were never intended to be
memorized, or used verbatim , they are simply examples of a
literary style that disappeared around the French Revolution. We
have kept the original spelling and syntax, to convey some of the
traditional character of Saint-Martin's writings. The study of such
texts may however guide us in the formulation of our own prayers,
when the needs of our spiritual development will require the
practice of this spiritual exercise.
Ernest Wood's parallel between the three stages of meditation:
concentration, meditation, contemplation; and the three stages of
prayer is particularly helpful in the understanding of Saint-Martin's
texts. These prayers are the formulation of a contemplative
experience, using the thought and the written word, in the present
world of existence: our daily life.
For him, the beginning of all truths is in nature, but their
consummation is in prayer. It includes all religions, because it
immerses our soul in that sacred charm, that divine magism which
indeed, not only explains the diversity of the religions of men, but
justifies even their apparent exaggerations, since wherever we find
God we meet with this magism, which is in fact, the manifestation
of the faculty of wonder. By its aid, we can pass unharmed through
all dangers, even without perceiving them; we can endure fatigues
without feeling them; because it defuses peace, almost pleasure,
over evils, over dangers, over tiredness, over death itself, by
imparting to our imperishable self, the powers which support it to
its end.
Prayer is only really attained when we succeed in making prayers
which themselves pray in us and for us, not those which are forced
upon us by the need to conform, seeking them in formulas, or in
childish or scrupulous observance, but it must weigh on all the
faculties which make up our existence. Such prayer obtains
nothing till it has acquired that character of active unity, which
carries it beyond time and makes it the natural channel of the
wonders of eternity.
The soul is the name of God, and if we obtain the sanctification of
that name within us, at that very moment, the channels of the
marvels of eternity open for us, and they may be distributed not on
us alone, but all over our surroundings. By this path, we are
brought to become the true image and in the likeness of God. But it
is insufficient to demand of God that He should descend in us;
even if it happens, we have accomplished nothing unless He
remains there. We could also say: it is insufficient to develop the
faculty to reach the divine consciousness within ourself; even if it
happens, we have accomplished nothing unless that consciousness
becomes permanent. Fortunately for his children, God is a King
who enters ever into his Kingdom and never departs from it!
When prayer, as a safeguard against pride and especially the pride
of the mind, has thus rebound our mind and our heart to God, and
has opened the divine treasury within us, we feel ourselves
warmed and vivified by all the divine forces; the foundations of
the covenant are laid within us; and the Holy Spirit itself operates
through several gifts or functions. And all such functions and gifts
operate within us in a sweet bound and in harmony, depicting the
true and holy fraternity of all the children of God.
Maurice H. Warnon.
FIRST PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
ETERNAL source of all which is, Thou who sendest spirits of
error and of darkness to the untruthful, which cut them off from
Thy love, do Thou send unto him who seeks Thee a spirit of truth,
uniting him for ever with Thee. May the fire of this spirit
consume me all the traces of the old man, and, having consumed
them, may it produce from those ashes a new man, on whom
Thy sacred hand shall not disdain to pour a holy Chrism! Be
this the end of penitence and its long toils, and may Thy life,
which is one everywhere, transform my whole being in the unity
of Thine image, my heart in the unity of Thy love, my activity in
the unity of the works of justice, and my thought in the unity
of all lights.
Thou dost impose great sacrifices on man, only to compel
him to seek in Thee all his riches and all his delights, and
Thou dost force him to seek all these treasures in Thee only
because Thou knowest that they alone can make him happy, for
Thou alone dost possess them, who hast engendered and created
them. Truly, O God of my life, I can find nowhere save in Thee
the root and realisation of my being. Thou also bast said that in the
heart of man alone canst Thou find Thy repose.
Cease not, therefore, for one instant thine operations upon me, that
not only may I live, but that Thy name may be known among the
nations. Thy prophets have declared that the dead cannot praise
Thee; let death then never come near me, for I burn to offer Thee
immortal praise ; I burn with desire that the Eternal Son of Truth
may never have to reproach the heart of man with the smallest
clouding of Thy splendour or the least diminution of its fulness.
God of my life, the utterance of whose Name accomplishes all
things, restore to my nature that which Thou didst first impart to it,
and I will manifest that Name among the nations, and they shall
learn that Thou alone art their God, Thou alone their essential life,
as Thou only art the movement and motive principle of all beings.
Do Thou sow the seed of Thy desires in the soul of man, in
that field where none can contest with Thee, since it is Thou
who hast brought it into existence. Sow Thy desires therein, that
the soul, by the force of Thy love, may be snatched from the
depths which hold it and would swallow it up for ever. Abolish
for me the realm of images; scatter the fantastic barriers which
place an immense interval and spread thick darkness between Thy
living light and me, entombing me in their folds.
Show unto me the sacred character and the divine seal of which
Thou art the custodian; pierce the centre of my soul with the
fire which burns in Thee, that my soul may burn with Thee
till it knows Thine ineffable life and the inexhaustible delights
of Thine eternal existence. Too feeble to endure the weight of
Thy Name, I leave in Thy hands the task of erecting its complete
edifice and of laying Thyself its first foundations in the depths of
that soul which Thou has given me for a torch, showing light to the
nations, that they may no more dwell in darkness. Thanks be unto
Thee, O God of peace and love ! thanks be unto Thee, because
Thou hast been mindful of me, and hast not willed that my soul
should want, lest Thine enemies should say that the Father forges
His children or is unable to deliver them.
SECOND PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
I will approach Thee , Thou God of my being; I will approach
Thee, all unclean as I am ; I will show myself with confidence
before Thee; I will come unto Thee in the name of Thine eternal
existence, in the name of my life, in the name of Thy holy alliance
with man. This threefold offering shall be for Thee an acceptable
sacrifice, on which Thy Spirit shall send down its divine fire, to
consume and transport it to Thy sacred abode, all charged and
filled with the desires of a needy soul sighing only after Thee.
Lord, Lord ! when shall I hear Thee utter in the abyss of my soul
that consoling and living word which calls on man by his name,
proclaiming his enrolment in the heavenly army, and Thy will
that he should be numbered among Thy servants ? By the
power of that holy word shall I find myself speedily
encompassed by the eternal memorials of Thy power and love,
with which I shall boldly advance against Thine enemies, and
they shall flee before the dread lightnings flashing from Thy
victorious word. Alas, O Lord ! shall a man of misery and
darkness cherish such high aspirations, such proud hopes? In
place of smiting the enemy, must he not seek only a shield
from their blows?
Furnished no longer with shining arms, is he not, as a despicable
object, reduced to tears of shame and ignominy in the thickets
of his retreat, unable to show himself before the day ? In place
of those triumphant anthems which once followed him in his
conquests, is he not doomed only to be heard amid sighs and
groans ? Vouchsafe at least one boon, O Lord, that
whensoever Thou searchest my heart and my reins, Thou shalt
never find them void of Thy praise and love. I feel, and would
feel unceasingly, that all time is enough for Thy praise, that to
accomplish this holy work in a manner which is worthy of Thee,
my entire being must be possessed and set in motion by Thine
eternity.
Grant, therefore, O God of all life and all love, that my soul may
reinforce its weakness with Thy strength ; permit it to enter
into a holy league with Thee, by which I shall be invincible in
the sight of my enemies, which shall bind me so to Thee by the
desires of my heart and of Thine, that Thou shalt ever find me as
zealous for Thy service and glory as Thou, O Lord, art eager for
my deliverance and beatitude.
THIRD PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
Spouse of my soul! by whom it has conceived the desire of
wisdom, aid me Thyself to give birth to this well-beloved son,
whom I can never cherish sufficiently. So soon as he beholds the
light, immerse him in the pure baptismal waters of Thy life-giving
Spirit, and be he ever numbered among the faithful members of the
Church of the Most High. Like a tender mother, do Thou take him
in Thine arms till his feeble limbs have strength for his support,
and shield him from all that is harmful.
Spouse of my soul! unknown except by the humble, I do homage
to Thy power, and I would not confide to other hands than
Thine this son of love whom Thou hast given me. Nourish
him Thyself, watch over his early steps instruct him when he
grows in the honour which he owes to his Father, that his days
may be long on the earth; inspire him with respect and love
for the might and the virtues of Him who hath given him being.
Spouse of my soul! inspire me also, me first, to nourish this
precious child unceasingly with spiritual milk, which Thou has
formed Thyself in my breast. May I ever behold in my son the
image of his Father, in his Father the likeness of my son, and of all
those whom Thou mayst engender within me through the
unbroken course of the eternities.
Spouse of my soul!: known only to the sanctified, be Thou at once
the mentor and model of this child of Thy Spirit, that in all times
and places his works and example may proclaim his heavenly
origin. Place Thou also at length on his head the crown of glory,
and he shall be an everlasting monument before the peoples of
the majesty of Thy Name.
Spouse of my soul! such are the delights which Thou preparest
for those who love Thee and seek for union with Thee. Perish
everlastingly him who would tempt me to break our sacred
alliance! Perish everlastingly him who would persuade me to
prefer another spouse!
Spouse of my soul! take me Thyself for Thine own child; let me
be one with him in Thine eyes, and pour on us each all graces
which we cannot both receive from Thy love. I can live no more
if the voices of myself and my son be forbidden to unite for the
eternal celebration of Thy praises in canticles, like inexhaustible
rivers ever engendered by the sense of Thy wonders and Thy
power ineffable.
FOURTH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
How should I dare , O Lord, for one instant to gaze on myself
without trembling at the horror of my misery! I dwell in the
midst of my own iniquities, the fruit of all manner of excesses,
which have become even as a vestment; I have outraged all my
laws, I have misused my soul, I have abused my body; I have
turned, and do turn daily, to an ill account all the graces which
Thy love showers continually on Thine ungrateful and
faithless creature.
To Thee should I sacrifice all, giving nothing unto time, which
in Thy sight is like an idol, void of life and understanding; yet I
devote all unto time and nothing unto Thee. Thus do I cast
myself beforehand into the abyss of confusion, given over to
idolatrous worship, where Thy name is not known. I have acted
like the senseless and ignorant of this world, who expend all their
efforts to annul the dread decrees of justice and to render this place
of probation no longer one of toil and suffering in their eyes.
God of peace and God of truth, if the confession of my faults
be insufficient for their remission, remember Him who took
them on Himself, washing them in the blood of His body, His
soul, and His love. Like fire, which consumes all material and
impure substances, like this fire which is His image, He returns
to Thee, free from all stains of earth.
In Him and by Him alone can the work of my purification and
rebirth be fulfilled. In Him alone can Thy sacred majesty endure
to regard man, through whom also Thou willest our cure and our
salvation. Gazing with the eyes of His love, which cleanses
all, Thou dost see no longer any deformity in man, but only that
divine spark which is in Thine own likeness, which Thy sacred
ardour draws perpetually to itself, as a property of Thy divine
source. O Lord, Thou canst contemplate only that which is true
and pure as Thyself; evil is beyond the reach of Thine exalted
sight, and hence the evil man is like one whom Thou rememberest
no more, whom Thine eyes cannot fix, since he has no longer any
correspondence with Thee.
In this abyss of horror I have, notwithstanding, dared to dwell;
there is no other place for man who is not immersed in the abyss of
Thy compassion. Yet no sooner does he turn his heart and eyes
from the depths of iniquity than he finds himself in that ocean
of mercy which encompasses all Thy creatures. So will I
bow myself before Thee in my shame and the sense of my
misery; the fire of my suffering shall dry up within me the abyss
of my sinfulness, and there shall remain for me only the eternal
kingdom of Thy mercy.
FIFTH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
Take back my will , O Lord, take back my will; for if I can
suspend it one instant before Thee, the torrents of Thy life and
light, having nothing to resist them, shall pour impetuously
within me. Help me to break down the woeful barriers which
divide me from thee; arm me against myself; triumph within me
over all Thine enemies and mine by subduing my will. O Eternal
Principle of all joy and of all truth! when shall I be so renewed as
no longer to be conscious of self, save in the permanent
affection of Thine exclusive and vivifying will?
When shall every kind of privation appear to me a profit and
advantage, by preserving me from all bondage, and leaving me
ample means to bind myself to the freedom of Thy spirit and
wisdom? When shall evils appear to me as favours extended
by Thee, as so many opportunities of Victory, so many
occasions of receiving from Thy hand the crowns of glory which
Thou dost distribute to all those who fight in Thy name?
When shall all advantages and joys of this life become to me as so
many snares, unceasingly set by the enemy that he may establish in
our heart a god of lying and seduction in place of that God of
peace and truth who should reign there for ever? When, in
fine, shall the holy zeal of Thy love and the ardour of my
union with Thee rule me to renounce with delight my life, my
happiness, with all affections foreign to this sole end of Thy
creature man, so loved by Thee that Thou hast given Thyself all
for him, that he might be inflamed by Thine example?
I know, O Lord, that whosoever is not transported by this holy
devotion is not worthy of Thee, and has not yet made the first step
in Thy path. The knowledge of Thy will and the solicitude of the
faithful never to depart from it for a moment, herein is the
one, the true resting-place for the soul of man; he cannot
enter therein without being filled immediately with rapture, as
if all his being were renewed and revivified in all its faculties by
the springs of Thine own life, nor can he withdraw therefrom
without beholding himself given over forthwith to all the horrors of
uncertainty, danger, and death.
Hasten, God of consolation, hasten, God of power, to
communicate to my heart one of those pure movements of Thy
holy and invincible will! One only is needed to establish the reign
of Thine eternity, and for constant and universal resistance of all
alien wills which combine in my soul, mind, and body to give
battle thereto. Then shall I abandon myself to my God in the
sweet effusion of my faith, then shall I proclaim His
wonderful works. Men are not worthy of Thy wonders, or to
contemplate the sweetness of Thy wisdom, the profundity of
Thy counsels; and I, vile insect that I am, can I even dare to
name them, who merit only visitations of justice and wrath? Lord,
Lord! may the star of Jacob rest for a moment upon me; may
Thy holy light be kindled in my thought, and Thy will most
pure in my heart!
SIXTH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
Hearken, my soul , hearken, and be consoled in thy distress!
There is a mighty God who undertakes to heal all thy wounds. He
alone has this supreme power, and He exercises it only towards
those who acknowledge that He possesses it and is its zealous
administrator. Come not before him in disguise like the wife of
Jeroboam whom the prophet overwhelmed with reproaches; come
rather with the humility and confidence which should be inspired
by a sense of thy frightful evils, and of that Universal Power
which willeth not the death of a sinner, since it is He who created
souls.
Let time fulfil its law upon thee in all the things of time; speed
not thy work by disorders; delay it not by false desires and vain
speculations, the heritage of the fool. Concerned alone with
thine interior cure, thy spiritual deliverance, collect with care
the scant forces which each temporal period develops within
thee ; make use of these secret motions of life to draw nearer
daily unto Him who already would possess thee in His breast, and
share with thee the sweet freedom of a being who enjoys fully
the use of all his faculties without ever encountering a
hindrance. Whensoever these happy ecstasies transport thee, raise
thyself on thy bed of sorrow, and cry unto this God of mercy and
almightiness: Lord, wilt Thou leave to languish in bondage and
shame this former image of Thyself, whom the ages may have
buried under their dust but have never been able to efface? It
dared to misconceive Thee in those days when it dwelt in the
splendour of Thy glory.
Thou hadst only to close the eye of Thine eternity, and it was
plunged from that instant into darkness, as into the depths of the
abyss. Since that deplorable lapse it has become the daily scorn of
all its enemies, who not contented to cover it with derision, have
filled it with their poisons, have loaded it with chains so that it
could no longer defend itself, but became an easier prey to
their envenomed darts. Lord, Lord! is not this long and
humiliating ordeal sufficient for man to recognise Thy justice
and do homage to Thy power? Has not this infected mass of its
enemy's contempt enervated long enough the image of Thyself to
open his eyes and convince him of his illusions? Dost Thou not
fear that in the end these corrosive substances may entirely efface
its imprint and place it beyond recognition?
The enemies of Thy light and Thy wisdom would not fail to
confound this long chain of my degradations with Thine eternity
itself; they would believe their reign of horror and disorder is the
sole abode of truth; they would claim themselves victorious
over Thee and possessed of Thy kingdom. Permit not, therefore,
longer, O God of zeal and jealousy, the profanation of Thine
image; the desire of Thy glory fills me more than any desire of my
happiness apart from that glory of Thine Rise on Thy throne
immortal, the throne of Thy wisdom, ablaze with the marvels of
Thy power; enter for a moment that holy vineyard which Thou
hast planted from all eternity; pluck but one of those vivifying
grapes which it produces unceasingly; let the sacred and
regenerating juice flow upon my lips; it will moisten my parched
tongue, it will enter into my heart, it will bear to it both joy and
life, it will penetrate all my members and will make them strong
and healthy.
Then shall I be quick, agile, vigorous as on that first day when I
came forth from Thy hands. Then shall Thine enemies, frustrated
in their hopes, blush with shame and tremble with fear and rage to
see their opposition against Thee made vain and the
accomplishment of my sublime destiny despite their daring
and persistent efforts. Hearken then, O my soul! hearken, and
be consoled in thy distress! A mighty God there is who hath
undertaken the healing of thy wounds.
SEVENTH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
I present myself at the gates of the temple of my God, and I will
quit not this humble asylum of the indigent till I have received my
daily bread from the Father of my life. Behold the mystery of this
bread! I have tasted thereof, and I will proclaim its sweetness to
unborn nations. The Eternal God of Beings; the sacred title
taken by Him who is made flesh that He might be manifested to
the visible and invisible nations; the spirit of Him at whose
Name every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth, and in hell; such
are the three immortal elements which compose this daily bread.
It is multiplied unceasingly, like the immensity of beings who
are nourished thereby, and, whatsoever be their number, never
can they diminish its abundance.
It has developed in me the eternal germs of my life, and has
enabled them to circulate in my veins the sacred sap of my original
and divine roots. The four elements which compose it have
dispelled darkness and confusion from the chaos of my heart; they
have restored to it the living and holy light; their creative force has
transformed me into a new being, and I have become the
custodian and administrator of their sacred characters and lifegiving
signs. Therefore, as His angel and minister have I
shown myself in all regions, to make known the glory of Him
who hath chosen man; I have reviewed all the work of His hands
and have distributed to each of them those signs and characters
which He has impressed on me in order that they might be
transmitted to them. and to confirm the properties and powers
which they have received.
But my ministry has not been confined to operation on the regular
works of Eternal Wisdom; I have approached whatsoever was
deformed, and have set on these fruits of disorder the signs of
justice and vengeance attached to the secret powers of my election;
those which I could snatch from corruption I have offered as a
holocaust to the supreme God, and I have composed my perfumes
of the pure praises of my mind and heart, so that all which lives
may confess that the homage, the glory, the honour are due unto
this sole supreme God as the source of power and justice. I
have exclaimed in the transports of my love: Blessed is man,
because Thou hast elected him as the seat of Thine authority and
the minister of Thy glory in the universe. Blessed is man,
because Thou hast permitted him to feel, even in the depths of his
essence, the penetrating activity of Thy divine life. Blessed is
man, because he may dare to offer Thee a sacrifice of
thanksgiving founded in the ineffable sentiment of all the wishes of
Thy holy infinity.
Powers of the material world! powers of the physical universe!
not thus hath God treated you! He has constituted you the simple
agents of His laws and the forces operating for the fulfilment of
His designs. Hence is there no other being in Nature which does
not second Him in His work and co-operate in the execution of
His plans. But He is not made known to you as the God of peace
and the God of love; at the moment when He brought you into
being ye were disturbed by the consequences of rebellion, since
He ordained man to subdue and govern you. Still less, ye
perverted and corrupt powers, has He dispensed to you those
favours with which He has deigned to overwhelm man. Ye have
failed to preserve those which were granted you by virtue of your
origin; ye dreamed of a brighter lot and a more splendid privilege
than to be the objects of His tenderness, from which moment ye
have deserved only to be the victims of His justice. To man alone
has He confided the treasures of His wisdom; on this being after
His own heart has He centred all His affection and all His
powers.
Sovereign Author of my spirit, my soul, and my heart! be Thou
blessed for ever and in all places, because Thou hast permitted
man, Thine ungrateful and criminal creature, to recover these
sublime truths. Had the memory of Thine ancient and sacred
covenant bound not Thy love to restore them, they would have
been lost unto man for ever. Praise and benediction to Him who
hath formed man in His image and after His own likeness, who,
despite all the endeavours and all the triumphs of hell, hath
reclothed him in his splendour, in the wisdom and the beatitudes
of his origin. Amen.
EIGHTH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
Men of peace and men of aspirations ! let us contemplate in
unison, with a holy fear, the vastness of the mercies of our God.
Let us confess to Him together that all the thoughts of men, all
their purest desires, all their ordered deeds, could not, when
combined, approach the smallest act of His love. How should we
therefore express it? for it is confined to no individual deeds or
times, but manifests at once all its treasures, and that in a constant,
universal, and unhindered way! God of truth and God of love! so
actest Thou daily with man. Amidst all mine infection and
vileness Thy hand untiring extracts what still remains of those
precious and sacred elements of which Thou didst form me at
first. Like the thrifty woman in the Gospel consuming her light to
recover the dime which she lost, Thy lamps are ever lighted, ever
Thou stoopest to earth, ever hopest to recover from the dust that
pure gold which has slipped from Thy hands.
Men of peace! how should we contemplate otherwise than with
holy fear the extent of the mercies of our God! We are a thousand
times more guilty towards Him than, in the sight of human justice
are those malefactors who are dragged through cities and public
places, loaded with the insignia of infamy, and forced to confess
their crimes aloud at the doors of the temples and in the presence
of the powers which they have defied. Like them, and a thousand
times more deservedly than they, should we be dragged
ignominiously to the feet of all the powers of Nature and the Spirit;
we should be paraded like criminals through all the regions of the
universe, both visible and invisible, and should receive in their
presence the terrible and shameful chastisements which are
invoked by our appalling prevarications.
But in place of finding stern judges armed with vengeance,
behold a venerable Monarch whose eyes publish His clemency,
whose lips utter pardon only for all those who do not blindly hold
themselves guiltless. Far from willing that we should wear
henceforth the vestments of opprobrium, He commands His
servants to give back to us our primeval robe, to set a ring on our
finger and shoes on our feet. For all these favours it is
enough, like later prodigal sons. to confess that we have not found
in the house of strangers the happiness of the house of the Father.
Men of peace ! say, shall we contemplate except with holy fear the
infinite love and mercy of our God? Say, shall we not make a
holy resolution to remain faithful for ever to His laws and to the
beneficent counsels of His wisdom?
O God! incomprehensible in indulgence and past understanding
in love, I can love but Thee alone; I would love none but Thee,
who hast forgiven me so much. I desire no place of repose except
in the heart of my God, who embraces all by His power, my
support on every side, my succour and my consolation. From this
divine source all blessings pour on me at once. He pours Himself
into the heart of man continually and for ever. So does He
engender within us His own life; so does He establish within us the
pure rays and extracts of His own essence, whereon He loves to
brood, and they become in us the organs of His endless
generations. From this sacred treasury, through all the faculties of
our nature, He directs kindred emanations, which repeat in turn
their action through all that constitutes ourselves, and thus our
spiritual activity, our virtues, our lights are unceasingly
multiplied. Behold, it is exceeding profitable to erect Him a
temple in our hearts!
O men of peace! O men of aspiration! say, shall we contemplate
without a holy fear the vastness of the love and of the mercies
and of the powers of our God?
NINETH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
How should it be possible , O Lord, to sing here below the
canticles of the Holy City? Amidst such streams of tears, can we
raise the hymns of jubilation? I lift up my voice to begin them,
but I utter sighs only and tones of pain. I am overwhelmed by the
length of my sufferings; my sin is ever before me, threatening
instant death, with the chill of its poisons freezing all my being.
Even now it lays hold of my members; the moment comes when I
shall lie like a corpse which is left by hirelings to putrefaction.
Yet Thou, O Lord, who art the universal source of all that
exists, art also the font of hope. If this spark of flame be not
already quenched in my heart, I still cling unto Thee, I am still
bound to Thy divine life by that deathless hope which springs for
ever from Thy throne. From the depth of my abyss I dare
therefore to implore Thee, to pray that the hand of Thy lovingkindness
may heal me. How are the cures of the Lord effected?
By humble submission to the wise counsel of the Divine
Physician. With gratitude and ardent desire must I drink the
bitter draught which His hand offers; my will must be joined with
that which animates Him towards me; the length and sufferings of
the treatment must not prompt me to reject the good which
the Supreme Author of all goodness seeks to effect in me. He is
penetrated with the sense of my sufferings, and I have only to be
enkindled myself with the sense of His loving interest; then shall
the chalice of salvation profit me; then shall my tongue be
strengthened to sing the canticles of the Holy City.
Lord, with what hymn shall I begin? With one to His honour
and glory who has restored me to health and effected my
deliverance. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the
same will I chant this canticle over all the earth, not only to
celebrate the power and love of my Liberator, but to communicate
to all desiring souls, to the entire human family, the certain and
efficacious means of recovering health and life for ever. I will
teach them thereby how the spirit of wisdom and truth may abide
in their own hearts and direct them in all their ways. Amen.
TENTH PRAYER OF SAINT-MARTIN
My soul hast thou strength to consider the enormity of that debt
which guilty man has contracted with Divinity ? If thou hast
found strength for crime, thou hast good reason to contemplate
it in all its horror. Measure, therefore, in thy thought the
vineyard of the Lord; remember that man should tend it;
conceive the wealth of the harvest which it should produce under
his care; think how all creatures under heaven await their
sustenance from its culture by thee, that the vineyard of the
Lord awaits in like manner its adornment at thy hands, that
the Lord Himself awaits from thy fidelity and watchfulness all the
praise and glory which should accrue from the fulfilment of His
plans. But thou hast fallen; the dominion of the enemy upon thee;
thou hast made barren the Lord's ground, brought the dwellers
therein to want, and filled God's heart with sadness. Thou hast
dried up the source of wisdom and of increase in this lower world,
and still thou dost hinder daily the productions of the Lord.
Consider the extent of thy debt, the inpossibility of its payment.
The fruits of each year are owing from the moment of thine
infidelity, the wages of all the hours which have passed since
that fatal hour. Where is the being who shall acquit thee in
the sight of that eternal justice whose dues cannot be cancelled,
whose designs must attain their fulfilment? Herein, O God
supreme, are exhibited the torrents of Thy mercy and the
inexhaustible abundance of Thine eternal treasures. Thy heart
is opened towards Thy hapless creature: not only his debts are
discharged, but a surplus remains with which he may succour
the needy. Thou hast ordained Thy Word itself to cultivate the
vineyard of man: that sacred Word whose soul is love has come
down into this barren place; the fire of His speech has consumed
all the parasitic and poisonous plants which choked it; He has
sown the seed of the tree of life in their place; He has opened
up health-giving springs, and it has been moistened by living
waters, He has restored strength to the beasts of the earth,
wings to the birds of heaven, light to the starry torches,
sound and speech to every spirit which abides in the sphere of
man.
To the soul of man itself He has restored that love of which He .
alone is the source, which has inspired His holy and
wonderful sacrifice. Eternal God of all praise and grace, one
only being, Thy Son Divine, could thus repair our disorders and
acquit us in the sight of Thy justice. The creative being alone
could make restitution of that which we squandered, for it needed
a new creation. If, therefore, O universal powers! ye strive to
chant His praises who has reinstated you in your rights and
restored your activity, what thanks are not due from me, since
He has become the hostage for my debts Himself towards you,
to all my brethren, and has discharged all? It was said of the
penitent woman that much was forgiven her because she had loved
much But for man all has been remitted, not only prior to his love,
but while he was steeped in the horrors of ingratitude. O men! O
brethren ! let us give ourselves wholly to Him who has begun
by forgiving all to us.
Each one of God's movements is universal and is manifested in
every universe. Now, like unto this God supreme, be the
movement of love universal in all our nature, at once embracing all
the faculties which compose us. Amen.