30 SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS ON PRAYER

"Better far to love obedience than to fear the consequences of disobedience. Let your spirit have its freedom. The choices are yours to make." - St. Francis De Sales

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30 SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS ON PRAYER
by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal

1. "It is truly by means of prayer that we learn the perfection of love of God."

2. "All persons, no matter what their state, must pray, for it is principally in prayer that God speaks to us."

3. "If you wish to do your duty well, you must pray to God; it is in prayer that we learn to do our work well."

4. "Prayer is the warmth of heavenly love. Prayer is the water of blessing which cleanses us of our weaknesses."

5. "All creatures were made to praise God. Everyone can pray and not one person can excuse himself/herself from doing so."

6. "Prayer is a discussion, a conversation with God, and by it we speak to God and God in turn speaks to us. We aspire to God and breathe in Him; and mutually He breathes into us and in us."

7. "Begin every prayer, whether mental or vocal, by recalling the presence of God. Keep to this rule without exception, and you will see in a short time how profitable it will be."

8. "Meditation produces good desires in the will and in the heart, such as love of God and neighbor, the desire to please God, to be of service to our neighbor, to be compassionate, to be merciful, and many other good qualities. These desires ought to open themselves up in our hearts and in our actions."

9. "You should try to pass from prayer to every kind of activity your state of life legitimately requires of you, even if these seem far removed from the desires you had in prayer. What I mean is that a lawyer must know how to move from prayer to pleading, the salesman to marketing, the married woman to the care of her family --with such gentleness and serenity that their minds are not disturbed. Since both prayer and our duty are according to God's will, then you must go from one to the other in the spirit of joy and peace."

10. Only one thing is necessary for praying well, and this is to have God in our hearts. This being so, our prayer is always well made, however we go about it."

11. "The secret of secrets in prayer is to follow one's attraction in simplicity of heart."

12. "The best prayer is that which keeps us so well occupied in God that we do not think at all of our ourselves nor of what we are doing. In short, we must go to prayer simply, in good faith, and artlessly, in order to be close to God, to love Him, and to unite ourselves to Him. True love has little method."

13. "You will measure the length of your prayers by the number of your obligations. Since it has pleased God to place you in a kind of life in which you have numberless distractions, you must accustom yourself to make your prayers short; but never omit them without great necessity."

14. "You say you do not have the time to make two or three hours of prayer. Who is telling you to? Recommend yourself to God in the morning and then go about your business, resolved nevertheless to raise your mind several times to God, even when you are busy or at meetings. What prevents you from speaking to God from the depths of your heart? Speak short words, but fervently."

15. "If you are not making long prayers while you are ill, make a prayer of your sickness by offering it to God who so loved our weaknesses that He crowned and glorified Himself with them."

16. "Distractions do not withdraw your soul from God. Nothing takes us away from Him but sin. The resolution we have made in the morning of keeping ourselves united to God and attentive to His presence keeps us always in it, even when are sleeping, since we do this in the name of God and according to His most holy will."

17. "Exterior reverence greatly assists the interior...We should keep ourselves in great exterior reverence as we pray, even if the prayer is made in private."

18. "In prayer, when our affections have already been aroused, we should not continue meditating and reflecting, but we should pause to enjoy them and from time to time whisper words of sorrow, of love, of trustful abandonment, and the like, to God, according to how we feel inclined. This is the best kind of prayer."

19. "When we find ourselves oppressed by dryness, we must offer the prayer of reverence, confidence and conformity to God's will, remaining in God's presence like a beggar before his king, uttering expressions of loving submission to his divine good pleasure."

20. "There is a certain way of praying which is very easy and very beneficial. It consists in accustoming ourselves to being in God's presence, but in such a way as to produce in us an intimate, simple and perfect union."

21. "Prayer has forces that triumph over nature."

22. "We should go to prayer with deep humility and an awareness of our nothingness. We must invoke the help of the Holy Spirit and that of our angel, and then remain still during this time in God's presence, full of faith that He is more in us than we are in ourselves."

23. "There is no danger if our prayer is without words or considerations, because the good success of prayer depends neither on words nor on study. It depends upon the raising of our minds to God, and the more simple and stripped of feeling it is the surer it is."

24. "Anyone who, when praying to God, notices that he/she is praying, is not entirely attentive to prayer. He/she is turning his/her attention away from the God to whom he/she is praying. The very pains we take to prevent distraction often work upon us as a considerable distraction."

25. "Anyone who is engaged in fervent prayer does not even know if he/she is in prayer or not, because the fervor of holy love is so great. He/she does not examine himself/herself but holds himself/herself fixed and fastened on God."

26. "The first advice about prayer is that anyone who wishes to pray, unless drawn and raised to God in an extraordinary fashion, must prepare for it by according to the phrase of the wise man: 'Before prayer prepare your soul; think of where you are going and to whom you mean to speak."'

27. "Prayer obtains from God more than it asks."

28. "First upon awakening in the morning, turn your thoughts to God present everywhere; place your heart and your entire being in His hands. Then think briefly of the good you will be able to accomplish that day and the evil you can avoid. Then kneel down, adore God from the bottom of your heart and thank Him for all His gifts and benefits He has given you."

29. "Often pray spontaneously to God, whenever you can, and in whatever setting, always seeing God in your heart and your heart in God."

30. "The end of prayer is our union with God, and that all who are on the way to salvation can and ought to pray."

31. "To pray is to raise the mind to God and converse with Him concerning our interests with a reverent familiarity, and a confidence greater than that of a child's trust in its mother, to talk with Him of all things both important and unimportant; it is to open one's heart to God and pour it out unreservedly to Him, it is to tell Him of our work, our failures, our desires, and all that is in our heart and to find our rest with Him as we would with a friend. It is what the holy scripture calls 'pouring forth one's heart as water before Him."'