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To obtain the granting of requests that we have at heart, there is no better means than that of directing the energy of our prayer to asking for what is most pleasing to God.

And take care about this: however sublime the contemplation, let your prayer always begin and end with self-knowledge.

Ordinarily this contemplation, which is secret and hidden from the very one who receives it, imparts to the soul, together with the dryness and emptiness it produces in the senses, an inclination to remain alone and in quietude.

One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer.

Mental prayer consists of what was explained: being aware and knowing that we are speaking, with whom we are speaking, and who we ourselves are who dare to speak so much with so great a Lord. To think about this and other similar things, of how little we have served Him and how much we are obliged to serve Him, is mental prayer. Don’t think it amounts to some other kind of gibberish, and don’t let the name frighten you.

O Jesus! how happy I would be if I had been faithful, but alas! often in the evening I am sad because I feel I could have corresponded better with your graces... If I were more united to You, more charitable with my sisters, more humble and more mortified, I would feel less sorrow when I talk with you in prayer. And yet, O my God, very far from becoming discouraged at the sight of my miseries, I come to you with confidence, recalling that "those who are well do not need a doctor but the sick do."

Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the spirit of love.

God is hidden within the soul, and the true contemplative will seek Him there in love.

Be extremely careful for the love of the Lord not to be tricked into giving up prayer.

I can say that my life is a continuous prayer, for everything I do I do it out out of love for my Jesus.

You may be sure, if you do all you can and prepare yourselves for contemplation as I have described, that if He does not grant it to you, He is keeping back this consolation in reserve only to give it to you all at once in heaven.

Be therefore earnest in prayer, and hope in detachment and emptiness. Your good will not be long in coming.