Time for God

Real freedom does not mean being ruled by one’s impulses from one moment to the next. Just the opposite. Being free means not being a slave to one’s moods; it means being guided in a course of action by the fundamental choices one has made, choices one does not repudiate in the face of new circumstances.

A person who does not pray habitually, no matter how believing or pious he may be, will not achieve full spiritual growth. Neither will he acquire peace of soul because he will always experience excessive scruples and never view things beyond their human or worldly significance. Thus, one will always suffer from vanity, selfishness, self-centeredness, ambition, meanness of heart, vileness of judgment, and a sickly willfulness and attachment to one’s opinions. A person who does not pray may acquire human wisdom and prudence, but not true spiritual freedom or that deep and radical purification of the heart. One will not be able to grasp the depths of divine mercy or know how to make it known to others. His judgment will always end up shortsighted, mistaken, and contemptible. One will never be able to tread God’s ways, which are far different from what many—even those who have committed themselves to a life in the spirit—conceive them to be.

The time spent in prayer should be adequate. Five minutes are not enough for God. Five minutes are what we give someone when we want to get rid of him or her. A quarter of an hour is the absolute minimum, and anyone who is able should not hesitate to spend an hour on prayer, or even more, every day.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that today’s believers need a presentation of the Church’s traditional teaching that is simple and easily accessible, adapted to today’s outlook and expressed in today’s language.

Mental prayer is the source of true happiness. Whoever practices it faithfully will not fail to “taste and see that the Lord is good

We can make our heart into an oratory, into which we withdraw from time to time, to spend time talking with him.

contrario: el hombre libre es el que no vive prisionero de sus cambios de humor, sino el que toma decisiones según unas opciones fundamentales que no varían con las circunstancias.

This wound produced in us by love may take many different forms at different times: desire, an eager search for the Beloved; repentance and sorrow for sins; thirst for God; agony at his absence. It may be a sweetness that swells the soul; it may be an inexpressible joy; it may be a burning, passionate flame. It will make us into beings forevermore marked by God, with no other life than the life of God within us.

We cannot give God greater proof of our fidelity than by renouncing and despising created things over and over again, to enjoy the Creator for just a single moment. Little by little, that exercise destroys the pride which can only continue to exist amidst creatures, and our frequent turnings to God progressively set us free from creatures.

Si conociéramos mejor a los maestros espirituales cristianos, habría menos jóvenes deseosos de buscar gurús en la India para su sed de lo espiritual. .

Love is ecstatic by nature: in loving strongly, one lives in the other more than in oneself.

Even though we may have had a powerful conversion experience, felt great fervor, and received immense graces, without fidelity to mental prayer our Christian life will soon reach a plateau and stall there.