On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Promise was poured out on the disciples gathered together in one place. While awaiting the Spirit, all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer. The Spirit who teaches the Church and recalls for her everything that Jesus said was also to form her in the life of prayer.

In the first community of Jerusalem, believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. This sequence is characteristic of the Church's prayer: founded on the apostolic faith; authenticated by charity; nourished in the Eucharist.

In the first place these are prayers that the faithful hear and read in the Scriptures, but also that they make their own - especially those of the Psalms, in view of their fulfilment in Christ. The Holy Spirit, who thus keeps the memory of Christ alive in his Church at prayer, also leads her-toward the fullness of truth and inspires new formulations expressing the unfathomable mystery of Christ at work in his Church's life, sacraments and mission. These formulations are developed in the great liturgical and spiritual traditions. The forms of prayer revealed in the apostolic and canonical Scriptures remain normative for Christian prayer such as blessing, adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2623-2643)

Religious life cannot be sustained without a deep life of prayer, individual, communal and liturgical. The religious who embraces concretely a life of total consecration is called to know the risen Lord by a warm, personal knowledge, and to know him as one with whom he or she is personally in communion. (Religious Life: Essential Elements in the Church's Teaching, Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes, ATC, Bangalore, 1987, No. 28, p. 20.)

In the prayer of petition we approach God as creatures, turning back to him asking forgiveness, searching for the Kingdom to come and working for the coming of the Kingdom. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2629-2633). In the prayer of intercession we join Jesus the intercessor with the Father who intercedes on behalf of all men, especially sinners (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2634 -2636).

The purpose of prayer is our union with God. All who are on the way to salvation can and ought to pray. The ancient Fathers note that there are three kinds of prayer, namely vital prayer, mental prayer and vocal prayer. To mutter something with the lips is not praying if one's heart is not joined in it... Prayer is nothing other than speaking to God. No it is certain that to speak to God without being attentive to Him and to what we say to Him is something that is most displeasing to Him. There are three kinds of vocal prayer. Those which are commanded, others recommended and still others are optional. (SFS, Sermon for Passion Sunday of Lent, April 5,1615. Sermons of SFS on Prayer, ed., by Father Lewis S. Fiorelli, Tan Books, Illinois, 1985, pp. 13-18.)

Once we are extremely gratified at God's infinite perfection, we come to realize that his goodness leaves nothing to be desired, that it is infinitely beyond our thoughts and dreams. But at least we desire that his name be increasingly hallowed, extolled, praised, held in honour and adored. So we start with ourselves. We search like bees, here and there among the flowers of God's perfections, God's creative wonders; from these we gather the nectar of so many motives for gratification; from those we produce the heavenly honey of glory, praise and honour with which to the best of our ability, we magnify and extol his name. Like the psalmist, we wonder at the prodigies of God's goodness that surround us; we make an offering of triumphant music on the mystic altar of our hearts, singing and praising the Lord: "And now my heart shall be raised above my foes who surround me, and I shall offer within his tent a sacrifice of joy. I will sing and make music for the Lord." Such a desire for praising God, to which benevolence of soul inspires us, can never be fully satisfied. It makes us long to have infinite praises at our command - past all counting, you see, the perfections we discern in God! As we find that we are far from capable of gratifying our longing, we try to praise him with all our heart. (Treatise, V, 8.)

A Daily Programme to Spend the Day Well: As soon as I wake up in the morning, I will give thanks to my God in the words of the Psalmist: "In the morning I will meditate on you because you have been my helper." It means: from the dawn of the day, you will be the topic of my meditation because you have been my protection. Then I will think of some sacred mystery... After this I shall reflect that our loving Saviour is the light of the gentiles, the light which drives away the darkness of sin... I will get up early and place myself in your presence and ...  I will not fail to attend mass everyday. To assist at this ineffable mystery devoutly I will invite all the powers of my spirit ... The body needs sleep to relax and refresh the limbs that are tired by work. Similarly it is necessary for the human spirit to sleep and refresh itself in the arms of its heavenly spouse... Often it happens that I cannot find a convenient hour for this spiritual rest. If so, I will take a part of the time from my bodily sleep to faithfully make use of for this watchful sleep… If God gives me the grace to wake up at night, I will immediately awaken my heart with the words: At midnight a cry was made: ...

Note well, SFS makes use of the Word of God even in his mystical prayers. (Antony Mookenthottam, St. Francis de Sales: A Formative Biography, SFS Publications, Bangalore, 2003, 2nd edition, pp 47-50.)

During Mass I almost complained to the Lord for finding myself all alone in this great city [Rome]. I did not find any one whom I needed. At the door of the church I found a good-natured person from Midi in France who is in Rome since two years speaking well and well instructed. I welcomed him as another Raphael. The whole day, in my meditation and in the Holy Mass, I was reminded of the need of confidence in the Lord. (From his personal Diary).