The School of Love, February 23

SOME HINTS ON PRAYER, Part I
[continued from yesterday]

...and I think He would hear them more tenderly.

Hence the first practical hint to be given to one who sincerely wishes to learn how to pray is that we should be faithful to our time of prayer rather than to our words.

Prayer can­not easily be measured by words; it is measured best by earnestness of purpose, depth of meaning, and intensity of feeling; and by feeling is not meant our sentiment, but the reality behind it that abides in the heart. This is the method by which, on his own con­fession, St. Aloysius Gonzaga grew to be so great a man of prayer; he began with the form, like the rest of us, gradually the form was made to yield to the feelings of his heart which it evoked, in the end we find him writ­ing and developing forms of his own.

And the same may be said of many others, conspicuous saints of prayer on the one hand, and on the other hidden souls of prayer who know God and His Christ by an intimate experience all their own. Let us take an example. Not so long ago a certain lady, who gave much of her time and her wealth to the poor, chanced in her rounds to come across an old woman in a humble cottage, who had been bed-ridden for years.

She sat by the sufferer's side, gave her what comfort she could, and then asked her about her prayers.

"Do you say your rosary every day?" she asked.

"Every day? Bless you no, not every day, Madame; I haven't always time," was the answer.

Not always time! And yet the old woman was lying there all day long and every day, often with no one to visit her for hours together!...

[continued tomorrow]
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From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918