On Prayer and The Contemplative Life | Page 5

the Holy Scriptures; hence his
diligent study of the writings of the Fathers of the Church. "Master,"
said a band of his students to him as they looked on Paris spread before
them--"Master, see what a lovely city Paris is! Would you not like to be
its owner?" And with a Saint's simplicity he replied: "Far rather would I
have the Homilies of Chrysostom on S. Matthew! For if this city were

mine then the task of governing it would take me away from the
contemplation of things Divine and deprive my soul of its
consolations!"[12]
And his companion Reginald has told us how he studied to know the
things of God. For he tells us that when the Saint was occupied with his
Commentary on Isaias and could not arrive at any satisfactory
explanation of a certain passage he gave himself up to fasting and
prayer. Then one night Reginald heard voices in the Saint's cell, and
whilst he wondered what this might mean at that hour, S. Thomas came
to him and said: "Reginald, get up, light a candle, and take the book in
which you have been writing upon Isaias and make ready to write once
more." Then Reginald wrote whilst the Saint dictated as though he were
reading out of a book, with such facility did he speak. And then, at
Reginald's insistent petition, he said to him: "My son, you have seen
the affliction under which I have been of late owing to this passage of
Isaias which I have just been expounding, and you know how I
besought God with tears that I might understand it. God, then, this very
night had pity upon me, and sent His Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul
whom I had prayed to intercede for me, and they have most fully
explained it all!"[13] How gladly would one know what passage of
Isaias it was which was thus Divinely interpreted!
And so this truly marvellous life went on till the end drew near. Day by
day he ascended the steps of the altar, his face bathed in tears; day by
day he returned to his work more and more illumined regarding the
Mysterium Fidei, and with his soul still more closely knit to its Maker.
His ecstasies became more frequent, and in one of these he was told
that the close of his life was at hand. For it was at San Severino, not far
from Salerno, that he fell into so prolonged an ecstasy that his sister
who was present appealed to Reginald to know what had happened to
her brother. Even Reginald was astonished. "He is frequently rapt in
spirit," he said, "but never before have I seen him thus abstracted!"
"Then," says William of Tocco, "Master Reginald went to him, and,
plucking him by the cloak, roused him from this deep sleep of
contemplation. But he sighed and said: 'My son Reginald, I tell thee in
secret, and I forbid thee to reveal it to anyone during my life, the close

of my writing has come; for such things have been revealed to me that
all I have written and taught seems to me of small account. Hence I
hope in my God that as there is an end to my writing, so too will
speedily come the end of my life.'"[14]
And S. Thomas was ready for the end, for not long previously, when he
was in the convent at Naples and was praying in the Church, there
appeared to him Brother Romanus, whom he had left teaching at Paris.
Brother Thomas said to him: "Welcome! Whence dost thou come?" But
Romanus said to him: "I have passed from this life, and I am allowed to
come to thee by reason of thy merits." Then Brother Thomas,
summoning up his courage, for he had been much disturbed by the
sudden apparition, said to him: "If it be pleasing to God, I adjure you
by God to answer my questions. First: How does it stand with me? and
are my works pleasing to God?" And the other answered: "Thou art in a
good state, and thy works are pleasing to God." Then the Master
continued: "And what of thyself?" And Romanus answered: "I am in
Eternal Life, but I was in Purgatory sixteen days because of some
negligence of which I was guilty in the affair of a will which the
Bishop of Paris entrusted to me for speedy execution; but I, through
mine own fault, was tardy in executing it." Lastly S. Thomas asked:
"What about that question we have so often discussed together: Do the
habits we have acquired here abide with us when we are in our
Fatherland?" But the other replied: "Brother Thomas, I see God, and
you must ask me nought further on