June 12th
St Chantal on Prayer
A Committed Heart

Let us be sure that we understand what an honor it is for us to spend time in prayer, as much time as we wish, as intimately as we wish.  The man who wins from his prince an audience an hour long counts himself lucky, and our God, before whom the kings of the earth are less than a spark in the full blaze of the sun, and less than a little worm in the presence of the highest angels -- this great God, nevertheless, shows Himself eager to hear us at any hour of the day or night that suits us to address Him.

The only thing which is absolutely indispensable to prayer is our heart and, though  if this part of us be not committed all the rest is only a hollow mockery, nevertheless with heart alone given to prayer we never lack for anything.  We must not be surprised if those who give themselves to prayer pay so little heed to the things of this earth because, forever holding themselves in God's presence, they find themselves lifted to so great a height and see earthly things from so far off, so that it is as if they almost lost sight of them entirely.

St. John Climacus calls prayer the salvation of the world, the great beauty of the angels, the origin of grace, and the most glorious possession which men can hold in this world, as if to say that, sure in the possession of so great a treasure, they will pay scant attention to anything else.

It matters little what work God carries on in the soul, because the soul must not be attached to the work being done by God in the soul, but to God who is doing the work.