De utilitate et dignitate oracionis et meditacionis

De utilitate et dignitate oracionis et meditacionis

To achieve and maintain this stability of mind, constant prayer is very helpful. Because if it’s based on intention, it weakens the power of demons. Even though God knows everything, even before we ask for anything, and perfectly understands what we want to ask, we still need to pray for many reasons; because Christ provided an example for prayer when He spent the night alone in prayer on the mountain; and because the apostle commanded, "Pray without ceasing"; for we must pray and not lose heart.^✦ So that we may obtain grace in the present and glory in the future, ask and you will receive. Whoever asks receives, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Moreover, because the angels offer our prayers to God, they assist in their fulfillment. Thoughts and desires are bare and open only to God. Angels know when the saints think worthy and holy thoughts, and they are fervently inflamed with the love of eternal life through the revelation of God and the experience of external actions, because they see them serving God alone. Therefore, the angel said to Daniel: 'You are a man of desires,' because through continuous prayer, the soul is set on fire by the flame of divine love. God said through the prophet, "Aren't my words like a burning fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks?"^✦ The psalmist also says: "Your word is like a fire, intensely burning." But. Now there are many who quickly reject the word of God from their mouths and hearts, not allowing it to rest within them; therefore, they are not ignited by the warmth of consolation, but remain cold in lethargy and negligence even after countless prayers and meditations on Scripture, because in their minds they neither pray nor meditate perfectly. While some shake off all lethargy, they are on fire and burning with the love of Christ for a brief time. Therefore, it is rightly said that your servant loved it. Therefore, he is kindled because he has loved your word, Lord: namely, to meditate on it and to act according to it. He sought you rather than your gifts, and he accepted you and your gifts. Some serve you so they can have what is yours, but they care little about you; they pretend to want to submit to your service so they can gain worldly honor and appear glorious among men. Yet while they rejoice in having found a few things, they lose many: because they lose you and what is yours, as well as themselves and their own. We must pray so that we may be saved. Therefore, James encourages us, saying: Pray for one another so that you may be saved. So let’s not be lazy, but instead let’s keep ourselves engaged in good works. Therefore, it is said, 'Stay awake and pray that you may not enter into temptation.'^✦ We must always either pray, read, or meditate, along with other useful activities, so that our enemy never finds us idle. But we must pay careful attention to stay vigilant in prayer, both in our actions and thoughts, so that we aren't lulled to sleep by distractions that pull our minds away and make us forget where we were headed. These distractions completely hinder us if they prevent us from achieving the effect of devotion that the praying mind would perceive if it prayed with vigilance, care, and heartfelt intention.