{"id":10569,"date":"2015-08-04T04:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T03:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=10569"},"modified":"2015-07-30T08:18:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T07:18:59","slug":"he-then-returned-to-his-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2015\/08\/he-then-returned-to-his-book\/","title":{"rendered":"He then returned to his book"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StFrom the Nine Ways of Prayer of St Dominic, Priest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dominic was zealous and filled with the spirit of devotion which he drew from the divine words which had been sung in the choir or refectory.\u00a0 Our father quickly withdrew to some solitary place, to his cell or elsewhere, and recollected himself in the presence of God.\u00a0 He would sit quietly, and after the sign of the cross, begin to read from a book opened before him.\u00a0 His spirit would then be sweetly aroused as if he heard Our Lord speaking, as we are told in the psalms: \u201cI will hear what the Lord God will speak to me.\u201d\u00a0 As if disputing with a companion he would first appear somewhat impatient in his thought and words.\u00a0 At the next moment he would become a quiet listener, then again seem to discuss and contend.\u00a0 He seemed almost to laugh and weep at the same time, and then, attentively and submissively, would murmur to himself and strike his breast.
\nShould some curious person have desired to watch our holy father Dominic, he would have appeared to him like Moses who went into the desert, to Horeb, the sacred mountain of God, and there beheld the burning bush and heard the Lord speaking to him as he was bowed down in the divine presence.\u00a0 This holy custom of our father seems, as it were, to resemble the prophetic mountain of the Lord inasmuch as he quickly passed upwards from reading to prayer, from prayer to meditation, and from meditation to contemplation.
\nWhen he read alone in this solitary fashion, Dominic used to venerate the book, bow to it, and kiss it.\u00a0 This was especially true if he was reading the Gospels and when he had been reading the very words which had come from the mouth of Christ.\u00a0 At other times he would hide his face and cover it with his cappa, or bury his face in his hands and veil it slightly with the capuce.\u00a0 Then he would weep, all fervent and filled with holy desires. Following this, as if to render thanks to some person of great excellence for benefits received, he would reverently rise and incline his head for a short time.\u00a0 Wholly refreshed and, in great interior peace, he then returned to his book.<\/p>\n

Responsory<\/strong>.\u00a0 Thy words, O Lord, || were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me a joy and gladness of my heart: * For thy Name is called upon me, O Lord God of hosts.\u00a0 V. How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey to my mouth. * For thy Name \u2026 Glory be \u2026 For thy Name \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Nine Ways of Prayer of St Dominic, Priest Dominic was zealous and filled with the spirit of devotion which he drew from the divine words which had been sung in the choir or refectory.\u00a0 Our father quickly withdrew to some solitary place, to his cell or elsewhere, and recollected himself in the presence <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-saints"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-2Kt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10575,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10569\/revisions\/10575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}