The School of Love, February 21

SOME HINTS ON PRAYER I
[continued from yesterday]

...For clearly what is one's own is better than what we substitute in its place; even if our words are more faulty, or our expression more vague, what comes hot from the heart is better than all else. When we read the New Testament, and hear the poor man on the road­side merely crying: "Lord, help me!" or St. Peter breaking down with: "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee;" or St. Thomas paralysed into his: "My Lord, and my God!" or Our Lord Jesus Himself unable to do more than repeat the self-same words: "Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me;" then we know that we are listening to the truest prayer. And when in like manner in our own turn we find our own hearts crying out to God, whether in faith, or love, or hope, or contrition, or oblation, or anything else, then we should know that our prayer is of our best, even a minute of which crying is more precious than another prayer of many words.

The first hint, then, to be given to one who would make progress in prayer is that the soul should not confine itself so as to be tied down to a formula however good. Suppose, for example, that I am accustomed to take a quarter of an hour, in preparation for or thanksgiving after Communion; and suppose that to fill up this time I have a fixed set of prayers which I repeat. I may some day find, and if I try I most certainly shall find, that while repeating the prayers, or even before, I am impelled to dwell on one word, or one idea, or one strong feeling of the heart; I am drawn to say "Jesus!" in welcome, and to dwell upon the name, or to be sorry that I receive Him so poorly, or whatever else; shall I entertain this feeling at the expense of my set of prayers, or must I keep my rule and say them?...
[continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918