Return to prayer!

August 12, 2016

St. Jane Francis de Chantal

Dear Family of Mary!

July 25, 2016

Our Lady calls us to return to prayer. Over and over and over, she calls us! Prayer is at the heart of her messages. But we hesitate, we lose our resolve, we get distracted, and we fail.

I was praying the Way of the Cross yesterday, and I confessed to the Lord at the 3rd Station that I fall (and fail) all the time. I fall in my prayer, in my service and in so many ways. But I had a mental image as I confessed this to Jesus. I saw myself as a little girl, a tiny little girl, who was running and fell down. At that moment Our Lady scooped me up and held me tight. I realized that all my falls, my sins, my failures can be handled by Mother Mary, if I let her pick my up after each fall. She will help me recover, and repent, and find a new way. This image gave me great hope. I hope it will give you some hope as well!

I found a collection of quotes from St. Jane Frances de Chantal about prayer. I think they are helpful in our search for prayer. She is so practical and gentle. Just like Mary. Maybe between Our Lady and St. Jane Frances, we can all learn a new way of prayer. We really need to pray, pray, pray!!

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal on Prayer

Mortification and prayer are the two wings by which one may take flight into those holy resting places where one finds peace in God far from the business of men.

If when beginning prayer we could make in ourselves a mere capacity for God, no other method would be required. Prayer must be carried on by grace, and not by deliberate art. Enter into your prayer by faith, remain in it in hope and do not abandon it except for that charity which serves and endures. Hold fast.

In prayer one must hold fast and never let go, because the one who gives up loses all. If it seems that no one is listening to you, then cry out even louder. If you are driven out of one door, go back in by the other. If you are told, as was the Canaanite woman, that you do not deserve the grace for which you are asking, then reply like her that you are not seeking unusual favors, but are hoping only to eat the crumbs which fall from the divine table.

Let us be sure that we understand what an honor it is for us to spend time in prayer, as much time as we wish, as intimately as we wish. The man who wins an hour-long audience from his prince, considers himself lucky. And our God, before whom the kings of the earth are less than a spark in the full blaze of the sun, and less than a little worm in the presence of the highest angels — this great God, nevertheless, is eager to hear us no matter what hour of the day or night we turn to Him.

With God there is no need for long speeches. In heaven the angels utter no other word than this: HOLY. This is their entire prayer, and in paradise they are occupied with this single word as an act of homage to the single Word of God who lives eternally.

In prayer, more is accomplished by listening than by talking.

A good and perfect prayer requires that we forget self, that we be ready to sacrifice all that we are for God.

We should go to prayer with deep humility and an awareness of our nothingness. We must invoke the help of the Holy Spirit and that of our good angel, and them remain still during this time in God’s presence, full of faith that He is more in us than we are in ourselves.

There is no danger if our prayer is without words or consideration, because the good success of prayer depends neither on words nor on study. It depends upon the simple raising of our minds to God, and the more simple and stripped of feeling it is, the surer it is.

The essence of prayer lies not in being always on your knees, but in conforming your will totally to God in all the events of life.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal, pray for us!!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

Cathy Nolan

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