The Ways of Mental Prayer Quotes

“We must not confine ourselves to reciting the words [in prayer] with our lips; it is necessary that we should raise to God our mind by attention, our heart by devotion, and our will by submission.”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“The rule recognised by spiritual authors is this: meditation for beginners, affective prayer for proficients, active or passive contemplation for advanced souls.”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“adoration, admiration, praise, love, joy, gratitude. . . . These are the six chief duties of a religious soul,”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“St. Francis of Sales1 recommends "meditations made upon Our Lord's Life and Passion; looking upon Him by frequent meditations your whole soul will be filled with Him, you will learn His demeanour, and model your actions upon His; . . . you will learn, with the aid of His grace, to speak, act, and will like Him. . . . In all our prayers and actions the Saviour should be meditated, considered, sought after,”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“St. Bernard1 in particular says that fasting "imparts devotion and confidence to prayer. And so we see how well fasting and prayer go together, according to what is written: 'When a brother is helped by a brother, both shall be consoled.'2 Prayer obtains the strength to fast, and fasting merits the grace of prayer. Fasting strengthens prayer, prayer sanctifies fasting and offers it to the Lord.”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“If we wish to become men of prayer we must regulate and discipline the mind; for whatever sullies, troubles, or distracts it can only be harmful to union with God.”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“The holy Abbot St. Antony spent the whole night in prayer, and complained that the day came too soon to interrupt his converse with God. St. Rose of Lima spent twelve hours in prayer daily. St. Francis Borgia used to spend eight hours in prayer, and to beg "as a favour yet another moment." St. Philip Neri passed whole nights in prayer.”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“Do you wish to know why our houses are no longer peopled with saints as they were in the heroic ages? We watch, we chant, we fast, we work pretty much as our Fathers did; but we are not to the same extent as they were men of prayer;”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer

“temptation cannot cross the limit set to it by the divine good pleasure; it always has a providential purpose; it attacks us on our weak side, and obliges us to fortify that; it instructs us, spurs us on, crushes pride, excites to prayer, calls for austerities and elicits great resolutions; thus the demon becomes, in his own despite, one of the most active agents of our union with God.”
― Vitalis Lehodey, The Ways of Mental Prayer