Continued from yesterday...
Chapter 10. Thoughts on Prayer
Prayer is a pleasure
Few enjoy prayer for the same reason - that they have never learned to pray.
The first thing we must understand clearly is that when praying we are talking to God personally, intimately, really. God is looking at us, giving us all His attention, ready to give us all we need.
What an immense joy and consolation it is to realize that we are talking to God Himself. But so many pray as if they were gramophones, talking machines, not even thinking of the words they are saying.
Many say their prayers in haste! That surely is not speaking to God.
St. Augustine says that God prefers the barking of dogs to prayers said hastily.
We must pray intelligently, slowly, thinking of what we are saying. Then our prayer is a pleasure, for we know that it is pleasing to God and that it is bringing us great graces.
The writer had once a long private audience with Pope [St.] Pius X. He was all alone with the Pope in his private room. The Holy Father was most gracious and kind and gave him all he asked for and even more.
Yet we have a private audience with God whenever we pray. We are all alone with Him, and He is infinitely sweet and merciful. But how few enjoy this intimate, personal converse with God.
If they understood that they were actually speaking to God, they would not think it a penance to pray; they would not be so easily distracted.
The Arabs give us a lesson in prayer. When they pray to Allah, they are so wrapt up in their prayer that they think of nothing else. In fact, frequently their enemies, knowing this, choose the moment they are praying to rush on them and kill them....
[Continued tomorrow]
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From An Easy Way to Become a Saint
by E. D. M. (1949)
The Catholic Printing Press
Lisbon, Portugal
With Ecclesiastical Approbation
13th June 1949
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