Early Church (Egyptian Desert Fathers) & Latin Church (Roman Rite) Spirituality & Monasticism

Email: conchristos@protonmail.com or Text/Call/Voicemail: (516) 595-2777

This fledgling group is for persons who are interested in learning and practicing Roman Catholic mental prayer. Mental prayer is instrumental in subordinating the passions and the will to the dominance of the reasoning (faculty), which reflects God’s will when right and proper. Mental prayer nourishes and habituates all the virtues, chiefly the theological virtues (faith, hope, charity), by focusing the soul on God and detaching it from lower goods. Mental prayer offers intimacy with God, disposes the soul to grace, and maximizes spiritual progress.

The purpose of this group is to study, discuss, and practice the authoritative Western methods of the science of mental prayer in order for each of its members to (1.) develop the capability to thoroughly subjugate his passions and his will to the dominance of the reasoning and to God’s will, (2.) to internally develop, fortify, and habituate the virtues, and (3.) to support and assist each other on his progress in asceticism, mysticism, sanctification, and spiritual perfection.

Other offerings provided by this group include learning other exercises of Roman Catholic ascetical and mystical theology, praying the (pre-modernist) Holy Rosary, praying multiple other devotions, learning how to privately consecrate oneself to God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or St. Michael the Archangel, exploring how to imitate the monastic life of a particular order, and learning Gregorian chants of the (pre-modernist) Roman Rite’s Divine Office – perhaps in hopes to eventually consecrate every canonical hour of every day to God.

This group is in-person only; video-calling is not available. Sessions will be held on Long Island (N.Y., U.S.A.). To inquire about this group, please email conchristos@protonmail.com or text/call/voicemail (516) 595-2777. In your initial correspondence, please include your first name and the town/locality in which you live.

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The Saints and Pope Pius XII on mental prayer:

“The solitary that would attain to God must pray continually in his heart, not trusting to the tongue alone.”

-St. John Cassian (Conferences 9.13, c. 420)

“Without continuance in interior [mental] prayer, no virtue can stand firm.”

-St. John Climacus (Scala 4.1, 7th C.)

“Prayer of the mind [oratio mentis] is necessary for the soul’s growth, for it perfects the infused virtues and prepares us for infused gifts.”

-St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa II-II, Q. 83, a. 1, 13th C.)

“Mental prayer is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him Whom we know loves us.”

-St. Teresa of Ávila (Way of Perfection 24; Interior Castle Mans. 1-2, 16th C.)

“Without the prayer of quiet, the soul cannot enter into the divine union.”

-St. John of the Cross (Ascent II.3, Dark Night II, 16th C.)

“Neglect of mental prayer is the chief cause of lukewarmness among religious and laity.”

-St. Alphonsus Liguori (Theologia Moralis, Pt. IV, ch. 6, 18th C.)

“Interior prayer, or mental prayer, is the soul’s elevation of mind and heart to God… an indispensable complement to liturgical worship.”

-Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Mediator Dei (1947)

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St. John of the Cross & Sacred Scripture on Catholic spirituality:

“Oh souls created for such glories, and called to them, of what are you thinking? With what are you occupied? How mediocre are your aspirations, and how wretched your pretended good! How sad is the blindness of your soul! You are blind to the most dazzling light and deaf to the powerful voices which solicit you. By allowing yourselves to be led on by what you consider happiness and glory, you do not see that you remain plunged in your wretchedness and your mediocrity, and you render yourselves ignorant and unworthy of the treasures destined for you.”

-Prologue, Spiritual Canticle, St. John of the Cross

“And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.”

-Prophecy of Ezechiel XXXVI, 27

“Sine intermissione orate.” [“Pray without ceasing.”]

-First Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians V, 17

“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever.”

-First Epistle of St. John II, 15-17

“But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.”

-The Apocalypse of St. John III, 16

“Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

-First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians III, 16