All Spiritual Deficiencies, All Miseries, All Falls, All Faults, Proceed From A Lack of Prayer

Father de Ravignan, S.J., in one of his famous exhortations, says:

"Believe me, my dear friends, believe an experience ripened by thirty years in the sacred ministry. I do here affirm that all deceptions, all spiritual deficiencies, all miseries, all falls, all faults, and even the most serious wanderings out of the right path, all proceed from this single source — a want of constancy in prayer. Live the life of prayer; learn to bring everything, to change everything into prayer — pains and trials and temptations of all kinds.

"Pray in the calm, pray in the storm.

"Pray on awaking, and pray during the daytime.

“Going and coming, pray.

"Tired out and distracted, pray.

"Whatsoever your repugnance may be, pray.

"Pray, that you may learn to pray.

“‘Teach us, O Lord, how to pray.’

“‘But I can not pray.’ That is heresy. Yes, you can always pray. If you feel a disgust, nay, a horror of prayer, pray on, pray in spite of yourself, against yourself. Beg for the courage in prayer which our agonizing Saviour merited for you by His pangs in Gethsemani and upon Calvary. Pray, for prayer is our salvation.”

From With God by Father Francis Lasance