June 18th
St Chantal on Prayer
Faith, the Science of Saints

A good and perfect prayer requires that we forget self, that we be ready to sacrifice all that we are for God; let us not deceive ourselves, God demands this much of us, He will not take over the management of our lives for anything less.  There is no state in which it suits Him more to find us than in that of humiliation.  To be little before God is not enough, we must be nothing, nothing at all.  This is the foundation upon which He builds, because it pleases Him to  make things out of nothing.  The more and more we reduce ourselves to nothingness, the greater shall be the things He will work in us.  Whether God is granting you His graces, or whether He be taking them away, whether He be stripping you and depriving you even of that which you possess, you must submit yourself humbly to His will, you must take His side against your own, and never seek support or comfort in anything but Him.