If we try to escape sadness by seeking our consolation in sleep, we will fail to find what we are seeking, for we will lose in sleep the consolation we might have received from God if we had stayed awake and prayed.
–Saint Thomas More (1478-1535)
Faith flourishes in the dark: trials, temptations, spiritual dryness and suffering are all opportunities for our faith to grow stronger. We can, of course, neglect these opportunities and allow our faith to wither and die. But those who praise God in life’s difficulties will experience the opposite effect.
–Saint Mary Magdalene De Pazzi (1566-1607)
When your mind does wander during prayer, bring it back. When it wanders again, bring it back again. Each and every time that you read a prayer while your thoughts are wandering (and consequently you read it without attention and feeling,) then do not fail to read it again. Even if your mind wanders several times in the same place, read it again and again until you read it all the way through with understanding and feeling. In this way, you will overcome this difficulty so that the next time, perhaps, it will not come up again, or if it does return, it will be weaker.
–Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894)
God does not delay to hear our prayers because He has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, He may give us the more largely.
–Saint Anselm (1033-1109)
God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him.
–François Fénèlon (1651-1715)
We should not bear it with bad grace if the answer to our prayer is long delayed. Rather, let us, because of this, show great patience and resignation. For He delays for this reason: that we may offer Him a fitting occasion of honoring us through His divine providence.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
