Salesian Literature

Letters on:

Prayer, Faith, and Accepting Your Vocation

1. Thy Will be done   ::    2. Do the will of God joyfully  ::    3. Serve God where you are  ::    4. Let us be what we are, and let us be it well 

5. Our faith should be naked and simple  ::    6. There are two principal reasons for prayer  ::    7. Little virtues prepare for contemplation of God

8. We must remain in the presence of God  ::    9. Never does God leave us save to hold us better

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6. There are two principal reasons for prayer

To a young woman having difficulty praying

 

Mademoiselle,

 

Some time ago I received one of your letter, which I greatly value, because it testifies to the confidence you have in my love, which indeed is really yours; do not doubt it.  I only regret that I am hardly capable of answering what you ask me concerning your troubles in prayer.  I know that you are in a lace and in a company in which you cannot lack good advice about this problem, but charity, which loves to communicate itself, makes you ask mine in giving me yours.  I will therefore say something to you.

 

The disquietude you have in prayer, which is joined with a very eager anxiety to find some object that may content your spirit, is enough in itself to hinder you from getting what you seek.  When we seek a thing with too much excitement, we pass our hand and our eyes over it a hundred times without noticing it at all.

 

From this vain and useless eagerness you can only incur lassitude of spirit; and from this comes the coldness and numbness of your soul.  I know not the remedies you should use, but I feel sure that if you can prevent this eagerness you will gain much, for it is one of the greatest traitors that devotion and true virtue can meet with.  It pretends to excite us to good, but only to make us tepid; it only makes us run in order to make us stumble.  This is why we must always beware of it, and especially in prayer.

 

To aid yourself in this, remember that the graces and goods of prayer are not waters of earth but of Heaven, and that our own efforts will never be sufficient to obtain them.  Of course, we must dispose ourselves from them with a great care, but with a humble and quiet care.  We must keep our hearts open to Heaven, and wait for the holy dew.  And we must never forget to carry with us into prayer the knowledge that in it we approach God and place ourselves in His presence for two principal reasons.

 

First, we pray in order to give God the honour and homage we owe Him; and this can be done without His speaking to us or we to Him, for this duty is paid by remembering that He is our God and we are His vile creatures, and by remaining prostrate in spirit before Him, awaiting His commands.

 

How many courtiers go a hundred times into the presence of the king, not to hear him or speak to him, but simply to be seen by him, and to testify by this assiduity that they are his servants?  And this purpose in prostrating ourselves before God – to testify to and profess our good will and gratitude in His service – is excellent, holy and pure, and therefore of the greatest perfection.

 

Second, we pray in order to speak with God, and to hear Him speak to us by inspirations and movements in the interior of our soul.  And generally this is with a very delicious pleasure, because it is a great good for us to speak to so great a Lord; and when He answers, He spreads abroad a thousand precious balms and unguents, which give great sweetness to the soul.

 

Well, my good daughter, one of these two goods can never fail you in prayer.  If we can speak to Our Lord, let us speak, let us praise Him, beseech Him, listen to Him.  If we cannot use our voice, still let us stay in the room and do reverence to Him.  He will see us there; He will accept our patience, and will favour our silence.  Another time we shall be quite amazed to be taken by the hand and He will converse with us, and will make a hundred turns with us in the walks of His garden of prayer.  And if He should never do this, let us be content with our duty of being in His suite, and with the great grace and too great honour He does us in suffering our presence.

 

Thus we shall not be overeager to speak to Him, since it is no less useful for us just to be in His presence; yea, it is more useful, although not so much to our taste.  When, then, you come to Him, speak to Him if you can.  If you cannot, stay there; be seen; and care for nothing else.

 

Such is my advice.  I do not know if it is good, but I am not too much concerned about it, because, as I have said, you are where much better advice cannot fail you.

 

As to your fear that your father may make you lose your desire to be a Carmelite by the long time he requires you to wait, say to God, “Lord, all my desire is before you” (Ps. 37:10; RSV Ps. 38:9), and let Him act; He will turn your father’s heart and arrange for His own glory and your good.  Meanwhile nourish your good desire, and keep it alive under the ashes of humility and resignation to the will of God.

 

My prayers, which you ask, are not wanting to you.  For I could not forget you, especially at holy Mass; I trust to your charity not to be forgotten in yours…

 

Francis

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