Chapter VIII: How to Increase in the Love of God, or of Prayer in General

THE way to do this is very plain and simple.

There is nothing about it you cannot easily understand, nothing you cannot easily do. It will depend chiefly on one thing, whether you pray, and have regular daily habits of prayer.

By prayer I do not mean going over the words written in a book. No; there may be prayer without the help of a book as well as with it. Prayer means to converse or talk with God, or, as some say, to raise the soul to God.

But what shall we talk with Him about? I will tell you. Faith teaches us who God is and what He is, what He loves and wishes. It teaches that He knows all and can do all; that He loves us; that His love for us is very great, and that on account of this love He redeemed and purchased us with His own blood. It tells us that He came down from heaven and became one of us, lived here in poverty, and suffered and died on the cross to open the gates of heaven to us.

At the same time we know how miserable and poor we are of ourselves, and what constant need we have of help from God to get along, in body and soul.

Do you not see, then, how many things we have to talk to God about; how much to think about before God? Now, this thinking of God, talking with Him, this begging of Him what you need, this is prayer; and you can easily see that this does not depend on book-learning.

Indeed, if you are accustomed to use a book when you pray, I would advise you not to read over the prayers merely, or to go over a great many at a time, but to pause from time to time as you go along, and to think and talk with God as much as you can out of your heart and soul.

One little prayer with a great deal of heart in it, a great deal of the simple talking of the heart with God, is worth more than whole pages of prayers read off without heart from a book.

Now let me give you an example of this. An old woman came to St. Teresa one day, who seemed to have something on her mind that made her feel very bad. “What is the matter?” said the saint. “O dear!” replied the old woman, “I should like to pray, but I cannot. I can’t even get through the Lord’s Prayer. I begin ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ — then I think, my Father in heaven! Who is it that allows me to call Him Father? The great and wonderful God! I think a long while in astonishment on this. I think what this name of father means; what love it shows on his part; what a happiness it is to have such a father. I get running on so in my heart that it seems to me I never come to an end, and cannot, for the life of me, finish the prayer.”

St. Teresa was full of admiration at the old woman’s account of her prayer, and told her to go on praying just that very way, for it was all right, and a great favor from God to be able to pray in that manner.

The fact is, prayer is a very simple thing and suited to all sorts and conditions of men — to the ignorant as well as to those that have learning; to those who cannot read as well as to those who can; to children as well as to grown people. Indeed, the more simple, childlike, unaffected dispositions you bring before God, the easier and better will be your prayer.

So, I do not doubt that there are some good girls, with little learning of books, who, from their great wish to love God, pray easier, love prayer more, and practise it with more constancy and pleasure than many of those who have much learning and a great variety of books to help them.

The hermits of the desert were the great models of prayer. They learned the great secret of praying all the time. And who were they? Mostly very unlearned and simple people, who, while they labored with their hands, in their own simple way talked in their hearts with their God and Saviour.

You see, then, you can pray, no matter what your condition may be. But in order to pray well you must pray regularly and constantly. If you have not a habit of praying, the chance is you will not pray much. It will slip little by little out of your mind, until you drop it entirely.