“What matters is not whether our mental prayer is beautiful,
or whether it works, or whether it is enriched by deep thoughts and feelings,
but whether it is persevering and faithful. Our first concern, if I may put it that
way, should be faithfulness in praying, not the quality of our prayer. The
quality will come from fidelity. Time spent faithfully every day in mental
prayer that is poor, arid, distracted, and relatively short is worth more, and
will be infinitely more fruitful for our progress than long, ardent spells of
mental prayer from time to time, when circumstances make it easy. After that
first decision to take the prayer life seriously, the first battle we must
fight is the battle to be faithful to our times of mental prayer, come what
may, according to a definite plan we have established. It is not an easy
battle. Knowing how much is at stake, the devil wants at all costs to keep us
from being faithful to mental prayer. He knows that a person who is faithful to
mental prayer has escaped from him, or at least is sure of escaping in the end.
He therefore does everything he can to prevent us from being faithful.”[1]
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