Extracts from the Dux Spiritualis by the Venerable Louis
de Ponte SJ
Chapter 3 Section 5.2– How prayer wrestles - a recap
In the meanwhile, until thou hast reached this happy
state [viz. being free of distractions in prayer], strive to remove the first 3
impediments which nourish and feed the last; never cease from praying with
great confidence and fervour: nothing is impossible to one who prays and trusts
as he ought.
In the midst of this din which, for a time, thou must endure
during thy prayer, cry out as best thou can to thy God to silence it, saying to
Him with David: Behold, God Almighty, how my heart hast forsaken me
[Psalm xxxix, 13]; both because through sloth I have not guarded it as I ought;
and because my vagabond imagination will not obey me.
The demons have induced it to fly from me: be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me [Psalm xxxix, 14] from the violence of this conflict.
And since thou commandest me to destroy and root out, and
to waste and pull down these four (4) impediments [viz. demons, interior
enemies, superfluous thoughts and distractions] to the contemplative life:
grant me the grace to obey thy precept that I may obtain the peace thou dost
promise.
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