The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues on His Way

by Anonymous

“I say frequent prayer because purity and perfection in prayer is not within our reach, as St. Paul the Apostle indicates. The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness when we do not know how to pray (Rom. 8:26). Consequently, our only contribution toward perfection in prayer, the mother of all spiritual good, is regularity and constancy.

Then I felt a slight pain in the heart and such love toward Jesus Christ that I wished I could throw myself at His feet, lovingly embrace them, and thank Him for this great consolation which He gives in His mercy and love to His unworthy and sinful creatures through His name. Then I experienced a kind of blessed warmth in the heart which spread throughout my whole breast.

The holy Fathers consider even heroic deeds as the acts of a hireling. They claim that the fear of suffering is the way of a slave and that desire for a reward is the way of a hireling. But God wants us to come to Him on the path of a son; motivated by love and zeal for His glory, we should conduct ourselves with honor and enjoy His saving presence in our hearts and souls.

God, in His love, rewards man a thousand times more than his actions deserve. If you will give God a mite, then He will give you a gold piece. If you will only decide to go to your Father, He will come to meet you. When you feebly say, ‘Lord receive me and have mercy on me!’ He embraces you and kisses you. This is the kind of love that the heavenly Father has for us unworthy children