For each of the virtues it is true that the practice of them leads to contemplation. We can, by our efforts aided by grace, do so much. But then we get to a point where our own efforts, even aided by faith, hope, and love, are insufficient. We need a more intimate union with the Holy Spirit. To be sure, we need a union founded on faith, hope, and love; but we need something where our own inspirations yield to those of the Spirit. This, when it has any manifestation in moments of prayer, appears as contemplation.

What, then, does contemplation do? Among so many other things, it revivifies the virtues. There is no action more perfect than that which had a root, of some sort, in contemplation.

This is true of each of the virtues.

In Lent, we may recall that it’s true of mortification, mortification being a virtue in some respect.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal notes this well; for her, the interaction between mortification and contemplation (“the presence of God”) is plain:

Presence of God and mortification mutually sustain one another. A mortified soul is more susceptible to, more easily permeated by, the divine presence. She has fewer distractions, she does not indulge in wandering thoughts, she tastes God, she keeps herself closely united to him; and the enjoyment of this access to him makes it easy to die to self, while the fortitude that comes of it enables her effectually to overcome or to mitigate difficulties and to endure all with comparative ease.

But while exterior mortification counts, it counts not nearly as much as interior mortification and the spirit of obedience, particularly that obedience to “every least creature through God” (obedience to neighbours in all things not contrary to the will of God). For it is in the spirit where contemplation and the virtues are found, where tasting God can happen, where wandering thoughts can be quelled, and where union with God is most possible in this present life.

Let’s take this Lent as an opportunity to live mortification – exterior and especially interior – in a spirit of contemplation: to be in God’s presence continually or more and more.