August 3 - After communion (absent-minded)
"I'm here" (In a tone of gentle reproach). [Gabrielle Bossis]
The sense of presence in the Lord in the pages of "HE AND i" is to be encountered in the Cure d'Ars.
In the communion of souls of special prayer we recognize St. John Mary Vianney who has turned as to St. Francis and St. Collette
And I ask, why St. Collette?
The answer is found in the words. "How I love those noble souls.
Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Collette saw Our Lord and spoke to him as we speak to one another."
St. John Mary Vianney as a member of the Secular Franciscan Order had a great appreciation of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Collette, a reformer of the Poor Clares. This is evident in the instruction on prayer, which follows:
An Instruction on Prayer
by St. John Mary Vianney.
- Consider, children, a Christian's treasure is not on earth, it is in heaven.
- Well then, our thoughts should turn to where our treasure is.
- Man has a noble task: that o prayer and love. To pray and to love, that is the happiness of man on earth.
- Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When the heart is pure and united with God it is consoled and filled with sweetness; it is dazzled by a marvellous light.
- In this intimate union, God and the soul are like two pieces of wax moulded into one; they cannot any more be separated. It is a very wonderful thing, this union of God with his insignificant creature; happiness passing all understanding.
- We had deserved to be left incapable of praying; but God in his goodness has permitted us to speak to him. Our prayer is an incense that is delightful to God.
- My children, your hearts are small, but prayer enlarges them and renders them capable of loving God.
- Prayer is a foretaste of heaven, an overflowing of heaven. It never leaves us without sweetness; it is like honey, it descends into the soul and sweetens everything.
- In a prayer well made, troubles vanish like snow under the rays of the sun.
- Prayer makes time seem to pass quickly, and so pleasantly that one fails to notice how long it is.
- When I was parish priest of Bresse, once, almost all my colleagues were ill, and as I made the long journeys I used to pray to God, and, I assure you, the time did not seem long to me.
- There are those who lose themselves in prayer, like fish in water, because they are absorbed in God. There is no division in their hearts. How I love those noble souls.
- Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Collette saw Our Lord and spoke to him as we speak to one another.
- As for ourselves, how often do we come to church with out thinking what we are doing or for what we are going to ask.
- And yet, when we go to call on someone, we have no difficulty in remembering why it was we came. Some appear as if they were about to say to God: "I am just going to say a couple of words, so I can get away quickly."
- I often think that when we come to adore our Lord we should get all we ask if we asked for it with a lively faith and a pure heart.
