This is an explanation I gave on mental prayer in Loyola, Spain at the very site of St. Ignatius of Loyola's conversion.

But you have to remember that when Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa Valle were teaching how to do this mental prayer, or oration mental, or just oration for Teresa Valla, they weren't trying to copy the Protestants, kind of like

what we see in the modern American Catholic Church. We've got to keep up with what evangelicals are doing.

There was no internet. They weren't in communication. The fact is that it was the Holy Spirit

teaching Ignatius of Loyola, which ended up spreading across all of Europe, tens of thousands

of even laymen.

I think by the end of the 16th century, there were several hundred thousand laymen that

went through what's called his spiritual exercises.

And for Teresa Bavala, the way that she taught her nuns ended up spreading to also many lay

people.

There's kind of a modern

myth among some traditionalists that I have to leave mental prayer to the priests and the nuns,

and I'll stick with my rosary. Now, when people ask me all the time, should I pray the divine

office, should I pray the bravery? I say, if you really look at what the saints say for lay people praying, the number

one thing I would encourage everyone to do is the daily rosary, at least five decades.

I preached from the pulpit before, five decades for purity of hands, 15 decades for purity

of mind. So I think the number one thing, if you only have 20 minutes of prayer, make it the

rosary. If you have another 20 minutes of prayer, I would say make it mental prayer.

And mental prayer sounds like an advanced term.

It kind of sounds a little heady, but here's what it really means,

is just meditation on the gospel.

But by oration, it's with all of the heart, all the imagination, even all the emotions.

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