SAINT BASILIUS: "We must seek to overcome distractions in prayer, seriously thinking that God is looking at us.
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SAINT
ALFONSO MA . DE LIGORIO: "Many pray the Rosary, the Office of Our Lady,
and make other external prayers of devotion, and yet continue in sin,
while he who makes mental prayer (that is, who uses his mind and does
not repeat only words without meditating on what he is praying) is
impossible to sin, because one of two, either leaves prayer or abandons
sin; mental prayer and sin are impossible to be together.
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With this,
this saint does not despise vocal prayers, but points out the need not
to pray them routinely. On the contrary, when repeating them, it should
be done with their meaning in mind. Moreover, he refers to the
excellence of speaking to God, too, in our own words, for this avoids
distraction.
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SAINT
TERESA OF AVILA: "If we do not think with Whom we speak, and what we
speak, and who we are who dare to speak with Him, I do not call it
prayer .
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St. Peter
of Alcantara: "Without the grace of prayer it is impossible to mortify
the flesh and even more so to mortify the spirit.
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St. John
Berchman: "Every apostasy in religion has its origin in the lack of
prayer. If I do my prayer well, I will persevere in my vocation.
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ST.
LEONARDO DE PORTOMAURICIO: "Take, then, and keep this important advice:
Have as your day lost the one in which you do not pray.
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St. Philip Neri: "Mental prayer and sin cannot be together. A man without prayer is like an animal without reason.
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St. Ephrem: "There is no treasure in man's life comparable to prayer.
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St. Nile: "God will not give perseverance if it is not asked for with persevering prayer.
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St. John
Chrysostom: "We should consider prayer as the culmination and end of all
our goods. It is what produces in us a holy life... Not to love prayer
is madness, and he who lives without it is already dead and corrupt...
There is no clearer sign of a man's virtue than to see his appreciation
of prayer. It is a truth of all that without prayer one cannot live
virtuously. It is the only weapon that defends us completely.
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"Prayer is
the head of all goods and the foundation and root of a profitable life.
Prayer strengthens our life and without it there would be nothing good
and healthy in us. Prayer is to man what water is to plants, or rather
what water is to fish.
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"Even if
you are a dog, if you are assiduous in prayer, you will be preferred to
the careless son... Do not say: God is my enemy and will not listen to
me, because if you are assiduous in prayer, he will soon give you an
answer, if not because you are his enemy, at least because you are
stubborn... Do not say: "I have sinned much and I cannot pray to the one
I have irritated", because God does not look at dignity or merit, but
at intention... For it is when we do not ask him that he becomes angry,
and when we do not pray to him that he turns away from us.
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"If you ask
a man continually, you will be considered annoying and annoying; but
God is not so, for He is annoyed precisely when you do not ask Him, and
if you persevere in asking, even when you do not immediately receive,
you will unfailingly receive. If you find the door closed, it is
precisely because He wants to force you to knock, and if He does not
hear you immediately, it is so that you continue to ask. Keep on asking,
then, and you will unfailingly receive. (Sermon on St. Matthew).
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St. Hilary:
"Christ our Lord, having set forth laws that were difficult to fulfill
later on, gave this advice: "Ask and you will receive", to indicate to
us the way in which we can fulfill them... The attainment of all divine
graces depends solely on prayer.
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SAINT
JOSEPH OF CALASANZ: "Without prayer one cannot persevere in the service
of God. Prayer is like a channel through which all graces come to us...
Prayer is as necessary for the interior man as food is for the exterior
man".
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St. Augustine: "If you want to live easily as a Christian, pray a lot and you will succeed.
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SAINT
TERESA OF JESUS: "As you do the prayer that is the most important, you
will not stop doing everything else... It seems to me that it is nothing
else to lose the way, but to leave prayer... No one can do himself
greater harm than to stop having prayer... Souls without prayer are like
a crippled body that, although it has feet and hands, cannot be
moved... Whoever perseveres in prayer, no matter how many sins and
temptations and falls the devil puts in, I am sure that the Lord will
bring it to the port of light".
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HOLY
TERESITA OF THE CHILD JESUS: "Prayer and sacrifice are my invincible
weapons; they constitute all my strength, and I know by experience that
they move hearts much more than words.
LUCIA (the
visionary - not canonized - of Fatima, to her nephew Fr. Joseph) "What I
recommend above all is that you go to the tabernacle and pray. In
fervent prayer you receive the light, the strength and the grace you
need. Follow this path and you will see that in prayer you will find
more science, more light, more strength, more grace and virtue than you
could get by reading many books or doing great studies. Never consider
the time you spend in prayer badly spent... Let there be time for
everything else, but never for prayer... I am convinced that the main
cause of the evil in the world and of the failures of so many
consecrated persons is the lack of union with God through prayer.
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St. Francis
of Sales: "Spiritual reading is the root, meditation is the stem and
prayer is the flower that produces all the virtues".
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St. John Bosco: "We must pray with an unlimited hope of being heard".
CATOLICIDAD