Swimming in the Sun; Albert Haase, O.F.M, St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1993

God is like the air we breathe. Perhaps that is why the deeper we grow in the prayerful awareness of the Divine presence in our lives, the less we actually say with words and the more we simply breathe and enjoy it.
How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun. Thomas Merton

Such is the life of prayer; to bask in the consciousness of Abba’s continual gaze.

Prayer is not actively searching for God. It is discovering that I have already been found by God. It is becoming aware of the fact that at every moment of my existence Abba is already contemplating me.

In prayer, we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess.” -Merton

Silent awe is the language of love. It is the adoration of the poor in spirit.

The false self prays from where it thinks it should be or would like to be. The true self prays from where it is.

Let Jesus pray. Thank God Jesus is praying. Forget yourself. Enter into the prayer of Jesus. In the end, praise praises, thanksgiving gives thanks. Jesus prays.

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live some distant day into the answers.” -Rilke

Discernment gives attention to the desires, affections and yearnings of the heart. To ignore what we want or desire not only violates personal integrity but refuses to listen to God’s effort to communicate with us.

Where the grace of God has brought me, the grace of God will keep me.

Letters to a Niece: Friedrich Von Hügel, Regent Publishing, Van., B.C. 1998

O How kind and generous of God when He makes it impossible for us to become very happy unless we become very good.

God leads to Christ, and Christ leads to the Church; and, inversely, the Church leads to Christ, and Christ leads to God.

We get trained in times of darkness into that sense of our impotence without which our very love for the presence of God can become a snare.