List of points

Action is worth nothing without prayer: prayer grows in value with sacrifice.

First, prayer; then, atonement; in the third place, very much 'in the third place', action.

Prayer is the foundation of the spiritual edifice. Prayer is all-powerful.

'Lord, teach us to pray!' — And our Lord replied: 'When you pray, say: Pater noster, qui es in coelis… Our Father who art in heaven…'

What importance we must attach to vocal prayer!

Slowly. Consider what you are saying, to whom it is being said and by whom. For that hurried talk, without time for reflection, is just empty noise.

And with Saint Teresa, I will tell you that, however much you work your lips, I do not call it prayer.

Your prayer should be liturgical. How I would like to see you using the psalms and prayers from the missal, rather than private prayers of your own choice.

'Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God', said our Lord. Bread and word! Host and prayer.

Otherwise, you will not live a supernatural life.

You seek the company of friends who, with their conversation and affection, with their friendship, make the exile of this world more bearable for you. There is nothing wrong with that, although friends sometimes let you down.

But how is it you don't frequent daily with greater intensity the company, the conversation, of the great Friend, who never lets you down?

'Mary chose the better part', we read in the holy Gospel. There she is, drinking in the words of the Master. Apparently idle, she is praying and loving. Then she accompanies Jesus in his preaching through towns and villages.

Without prayer, how difficult it is to accompany him!

You say that you don't know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and once you have said, 'Lord, I don't know how to pray!' rest assured that you have begun to do so.

You write: 'To pray is to talk with God. But about what?' About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions: and Love and reparation.

In a word: to get to know him and to get to know yourself: 'to get acquainted!'

'Et in meditatione mea exardescit ignis. And in my meditation a fire shall flame out.' That is why you go to pray: to become a bonfire, a living flame giving heat and light.

So, when you are not able to go on, when you feel that your fire is dying out, if you cannot throw on it sweet— smelling logs, throw on the branches and twigs of short vocal prayers and ejaculations, to keep the bonfire burning. And you will not have wasted your time.

I had to smile at the impatience of your prayer. You were telling him: 'I don't want to grow old, Jesus… To have to wait so long to see you! Then, perhaps I won't have a heart as inflamed as mine is now. "Then" seems too late. Now, my union would be more ardent for I love you now with the pure Love of youth.'

I like to see you living that 'ambitious reparation'. The world! you say. — Very good, but first of all, the members of your supernatural family, your own relations, the people of your country.

You were saying to him: 'you mustn't trust me. But I…, I do trust you, Jesus. I abandon myself in your arms: there I leave all that is mine, my weaknesses!' And I think it is a good prayer.

The prayer of a Christian is never a monologue.

'Minutes of silence'. Leave silence for those whose hearts are dry.

We Catholics, children of God, speak with our Father who is in heaven.

Don't neglect your spiritual reading. — Reading has made many saints.

You write. 'In my spiritual reading I build up a store of fuel. — It looks like a lifeless heap, but I often find that my memory, of its own accord, will draw from it material which fills my prayer with life and inflames my thanksgiving after Communion.'

The battle front. A group of some twenty officers, singing together in gay and noble comradeship. The songs come quickly, one after another.

That young lieutenant with the brown moustache only heard the first:

'I have no use

for divided hearts:

I give mine whole,

and not in parts.'

'What reluctance to give my whole heart!' And his prayer rose up in a broad and peaceful flow.

If you don't deny yourself you will never be a soul of prayer.

Let your will exact from your senses, by means of atonement, what your other faculties deny your will in prayer.

A saying of a soul of prayer: in intentions, may Jesus be our aim; in affections, our Love; in conversation, our theme; in actions, our model.

That supernatural mode of conduct is a truly military tactic.

You carry on the war — the daily struggles of your interior — far from the main walls of your fortress.

And the enemy meets you there: in your small mortifications, your customary prayer, your methodical work, your plan of life: and with difficulty will he come close to the easily-scaled battlements of your castle. And if he does come, he comes exhausted.