Prayer itself is the piercing of our hearts by pious feelings towards God, one after another – feelings of humility, submission, gratitude, doxology, forgiveness, heart-felt prostration, brokenness, conformity to the will of God, etc…. When these feelings are present, our praying is prayer, and when they are absent, it is not yet prayer.
–Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894
The essence of prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God
–Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894)
Ask those who love Him with a sincere love, and they will tell you that they find no greater or prompter relief amid the troubles of their life than in loving conversation with their Divine Friend.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
All authentic prayer is prayer of the church. Through every sincere prayer something happens in the church, and it is the church itself that is praying therein, for it is the Holy Spirit living in the church that intercedes for every individual soul “with sighs too deep for words.” This is exactly what “authentic” prayer is, for “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord!’ except by the Holy Spirit.” What could the prayer of the church be, if not great lovers giving themselves to God who is love!
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
“The more you pray,” Angela of Foligno wrote, “the more you will be enlightened.” But I knew better: The statement, as it stands, is both true and false. When we turn God into a vending machine, when we pray to “get” things rather than to get God — there is no “enlightenment” in that. When prayer is a journey into the mind and heart of God, into the nature of life, into the shaping of a holy heart, then it is necessarily enlightening. We come to understand ourselves: our fears, our darkness, our struggles, our resistance. Then we are faced with choice. That is enlightenment.
–Joan Chittester (1936-
With me prayer is a lifting up of the heart, a look towards Heaven, a cry of gratitude and love uttered equally in sorrow and in joy; in a word, something noble, supernatural, which enlarges my soul and unites it to God.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
