(fall colors over monastery property)
PRAYER REFLECTION by St. Claude de la Colombiere
As I feel a great attraction toward prayer, I asked God, by Our Lady's intercession, to give me the grace to go on increasing in love of this holy exercise, PRAYER, until my death. It is the only means of purifying us, of uniting us to God, and of allowing God to unite himself to us and be glorified in us.
We must pray to obtain the apostolic virtues, pray that we may use them to help others, and pray also that we may not lose them while serving others. The counsel, PRAY WITHOUT CEASING, seems sweet to me and in no way impossible. It includes the practice of the presence of God, and with his help, I resolve to follow it. We always have need of God, therefore, we must always pray. The more we pray, the more we please him and the more we obtain. I do not ask for consolation in prayer; that God gives where he chooses; I am not worthy of consolation and am too weak to bear it.
I ask God to give me a solid, simple gift of prayer which will glorify him and not make me vain. When we are distracted during prayer and find the time long because of our impatience to pass on to something else, it is good to say to youself: My soul, are you tired of your God? Are you not satisfied with him? You possess him and do you seek for something else? Where can you be better than in his company? Where can you profit more? I have experienced that this calms the mind and unites it with God.
(St. Claude de la Colombiere (died in 1682) was a French Jesuit priest and also the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.)
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