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The fly that clings to honey hinders its flight, and the soul that allows itself attachment to spiritual sweetness hinders its own liberty and contemplation.

Almighty Father, I place the Precious Blood of Jesus before my lips before I pray, that my prayers may be purified before they ascend to Your divine altar.

To secure a hearing there is no need to recite set prayers composed for the occasion. . . . I have not the courage to search through books for beautiful prayers; they are so numerous, that it would only make my head ache, and besides, each one is more lovely than the other. Unable either to say them all or to choose between them, I do as a child would do who cannot read-I say just what I want to say to God, quite simply and He never fails to understand.

They must not be anxious about their meditation, being content simply with directing their attention lovingly towards God; and all this without anxiety or effort, or any desire to feel and taste His presence.

It's an amusing thing that even though we still have a thousand impediments and imperfections and our virtues have hardly begun to grow -and please, God, they might have begun- we are yet not ashamed to seek spiritual delights in prayer or to complain about dryness.

In times of aridity when I am incapable of praying, of practicing virtue, I seek little opportunities, mere trifles, to give pleasure to Jesus; for instance a smile, a pleasant word when inclined to be silent and to show weariness. If I find no opportunities, I at least tell Him again and again that I love Him; that is not difficult and it keeps alive the fire in my heart.

Especially persons of prayer should always be attached to St. Joseph... Those who cannot find a master to teach them prayer should take this glorious saint for their master, and they will not go astray.

...you have only to stay close to the crucified and your suffering is the best prayer.

Mark well, however, that self-knowledge is indispensable, even for those whom God takes to dwell in the same mansion with Himself. Nothing else, however elevated, perfects the soul which must never seek to forget its own nothingness. Let humility be always at work, like the bee at the honeycomb, or all will be lost. But, remember, the bee leaves its hive to fly in search of flowers and the soul should sometimes cease thinking of itself to rise in meditation on the grandeur and majesty of its God. It will learn its own baseness better thus than by self-contemplation, and will be freer from the reptiles which enter the first room where self-knowledge is acquired.

Have we truly prayed "in the name of Jesus," i.e., not just with the name of Jesus on our lips, but with the spirit and in the mind of Jesus, for the glory of the Father alone, without any self-seeking?
The day on which God has unrestricted power over our hearts we shall also have unrestricted power over his.

You do much more by saying one word of the Our Father from time to time than by rushing through the entire prayer many times.  You are very close to the One you petition; He will not fail to hear you.  And believe that herein lies the true praise and hollowing of His name.

I have within me the prayer of Jesus Christ, the Divine Adorer.  It takes me to souls and to the Father.