7. Prayer.

Beseech God assiduously that He will mortify in thee, and take away from thee whatsoever is displeasing to Him; beseech Him to make thee a man after His own heart. For if thou hast faith, and perseverest in humble petition and prayer, thou wilt with out doubt receive whatever is conducive to thy salvation, according to the promise of Christ, who saith; “Ask, and you shall receive” (St. John xvi. 24). And again, “All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” It is indeed certain that thou wilt at a fitting time, if not immediately, obtain by prayer those things which are useful to thee, and which thou mayest rightly and confidently hope to obtain. If two persons prayed to God at the same 148time, one of whom asked for a thing which seemed al most impossible, but yet trusted that God would grant his petition: while the other sought for a trifling thing, but had not full confidence in God; he who asked for an important and difficult thing, would through the merit of his confidence be much sooner heard than he who with little confidence prayed for a little thing.

If perchance thou seekest piously for what would not be for thy good, God will give thee something that will be profitable to thee. He is a most loving Father; if He denies thee when thou askest for spiritual riches, it is because thou art childish, and knowest not how to make a good use of them. He lays up for thee, however, in heaven each time a hundred-fold what thou dost ask. It is, indeed, impossible that the least prayer rightly offered, the least sigh, or the least pious aspiration to God, should fail to bring forth great fruit.

Recite frequently that most excellent and most sweet prayer, which our Lord Jesus Christ pronounced with His own sacred lips, and taught to us. And in praying to God, thou must not imagine Him to be corporeal and visible; but believing him to be a Spirit, adore and pray to Him in spirit and in truth.⁴⁴   St. John iv. 24. Conceive of Him. in thy mind as a supersubstantial Substance; contemplate Him as the supreme Good, and supreme Love, and the supremely desirable intellectual Light. But look and meditate upon the Son of God, who for thee was made man, as God and Man.