(our statue of Mary is surrounded by crepe myrtle)
Every Man's Life is a Continual State of Prayer
Every man's life is a continual state of prayer; he is no moment free from it, nor can possibly be so. For all our natural tempers, be they what they will, ambition, covetousness, selfishness, worldly-mindedness, pride, envy, hatred, malice or any other lust whatever, are all of them in reality only so many different kinds and forms of a spirit of prayer which is inseparable from the heart as weight is from the body.
For every natural temper is nothing else but a manifestation of the desire and prayer of the heart, and shows us how it works and wills. And as the heart works and wills, such and no other is its prayer.
If, therefore, the working desire of the heart is not habitually turned towards God, if this is not our spirit of prayer, we are necessarily in a state of prayer towards something else that carries us from God and brings all kind of evil into us. Pray we must, as sure as our heart is alive; and therefore when the state of our heart is not a spirit of prayer to God, we pray without ceasing to some or other part of the creation.
(written by William Law, an Anglican author from the 1700's in England)
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