Wednesday, July 15 : John Tauler

We are to consider why and how we are to pray. People who want to give themselves to prayer must, before all else, collect their heart within themselves, recall it from its wanderings and from the dissipation into which it was going astray, and then humbly cast themselves down at God’s feet, ask him for a lavish alms, knock at the door of the Father’s heart and beg for bread, that is, charity… Then we must ask that God would grant us, and teach us to ask for, whatever most pleases him in our prayer and will be of most use to us… Not everyone can pray mentally but some have to have recourse to vocal prayer. In this case you are to speak to our Lord with the most loving, most familiar and most affectionate words you can think of and this will also stir up charity in your own heart. Ask of our heavenly Father that, through his only Son, he will give himself to you as the object of your prayer in the kindest of ways. And when you have found a form of prayer that, more than any other, please you and stirs up your devotion…, keep to this manner of praying and give it preference… You must knock at the door with persevering application, for “he who perseveres to the end will win the prize” (cf Mt 10,22; 2Tm 2,5)… “If you who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
maronite readings – rosary,team