• Gen. 4: 3-7:  If you had done the right thing you would be smiling (GN)

• Gen. 18:22-33:  Prayer of intercession

• Ps. 42: 1-2:  As a deer longs for flowing streams (NRSV)

• Lk. 11: 1-13:  How much more will the Heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit.

• Is. 6: 1-8:  Holy, holy, holy...

• Mk. 7: 37:  They were astounded beyond measure.

• Phil. 1: 3-11:  I pray with joy.

The discovery of intimacy with God, the necessity for adoration, the need for intercession - the experience of Christian holiness show us the fruitfulness of prayer, in which God reveals himself to the spirit and heart of his servants. The Lord gives us this knowledge of himself in the fervour of love. The gifts of the Spirit are many, but they always grant us a taste of that true and intimate knowledge of the Lord. Without it we shall not succeed either in understanding the value of Christian and religious life or in gaining the strength to advance in it with the joy of a hope that does not deceive. (Evangelica Testificatio No. 43)

The Call to holiness is accepted and can be cultivated only in the silence of adoration before the infinite transcendence of God: We must confess that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of him who is adored: in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a veil (Cf. Ex. 34:33); in commitment, so that we will refuse to be locked in a struggle without love and forgiveness. All, believers and non believers alike, need to learn, a silence that allows the Other to speak when and how he wishes, and allows us to understand his words. In practice this involves great fidelity to liturgical and personal prayer, to periods devoted to menial prayer and contemplation, to Eucharistic adoration, to monthly recollections and to spiritual exercises. (Vita Consecrata. No.38)

Prayer is opening our understanding to God's brightness and light, and exposing our will to the warmth of his love. Nothing else purifies so well our understanding of its ignorance and our will of its sinful attachments. It is a spring of blessings and its waters quench the thirst of the passions of our heart, wash away our imperfections, and make the plants of our good desires grow green and bear flowers. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part II, Chapter 1.)

I have therefore consented to the desire which urges me to speak of prayer, even though it is not my intention to explain every aspect of it because we learn it more by experience than by being taught. Moreover, it matters little to know the kind of prayer. Actually, I would prefer that you never ask the name of the kind of prayer you are experiencing because, as St. Anthony says, that prayer is imperfect in which one is aware that one is praying. Also prayer which one makes without knowing how one is doing it, and without reflecting on what one is asking for, shows clearly that such a soul is very much occupied with God and that, consequently, this prayer is excellent. (SFS, Sermon for the third Sunday of Lent, March 22, 1615. Sermons of SFS on Prayer, ed., by Father Lewis S. Fiorelli, Tan Books, Illinois, 1985. pp. 1-2.)

The early Christians who had been trained by St. Mark the Evangelist were so assiduous in prayer that many of the ancient Fathers called them Suppliants and others named them physicians because by means of prayer they found the remedy for all their ills. They also named them monks because they were so united; indeed, the name monk means single. Pagan philosophers said that man is an uprooted tree, from which we can conclude how necessary prayer is for man, since if a tree does not have sufficient earth to cover its roots it cannot live; neither can a man live who does not give special attention to heavenly things. Now prayer, according to most of the Fathers, is nothing other than a raising of the mind to heavenly things; others say that it is a petition; but the two opinions are not at all opposed, for while raising our mind to God, we can ask Him for what seems necessary. (Sermons of SFS on Prayer, ed., by Father Lewis S. Fiorelli, Tan Books, Illinois, 1985. pp. 4-5.)

Prayer was always his nourishment and he was quite at home with it. It was at the foot of the cross that he usually drew his strength for his spirit. It is from there that he drew the special teaching and the wisdom of the saints of which he was overflowing rather than from books and studies. He made the same to flood the souls of everyone. Just as he made devotion loveable, so did he make prayer loveable, helping innumerable souls to practise prayer with remarkable progress. (Andre de Sauzea, First Process, Art. 33, in Saint François de Sales, Par les Temoins de Sa Vie, Roger Devos, Gardet Editeur, Annecy, 1967.)

Following the example of our divine Master (Lk. 18:1), I should tell you that we must pray always. He prays always who works according to God (Beda). He prays always who does well always (Glossa). Do not be prevented from always praying (Eccl. 18:22). Pray at all times (Eph. 6:18) - pray without ceasing (1 Th. 5:17) For each one of us it is a need, it is a duty, it is the means of receiving all the graces necessary for our vocation: "Ask and you will receive" (Jn. 16: 24). (Fr. Peter Mermier, Circular to the Confreres in India, 17th April 1852; Cf. A. Duval, Recueil de Textes, p. 104).