Practical Devotion of the Day: The Importance of Evening Prayer

I am the treat of the true son. How many ungrateful children are there who care little or nothing for their parents! Of such children God will do justice. The true son takes every opportunity to pay homage to those who respect and love. O Christian, son of God, after so many hours spent in the world, returning to your room for rest, why not even with a prayer do you greet the heavenly Father before sleep? How ungrateful! You are sleepy!… What if the Lord abandons you?

They are a strict duty. Who did you get the hits of the day from? Who escaped you from a hundred dangers? Who kept you alive? Even the dog celebrates his benefactor; and you, a reasonable creature, don't feel the duty of gratitude? But during the night you can encounter dangers of soul and body; you can die, you can damn yourself…, don't you feel the need to call for help? During the day you offended God… Don't you feel the duty to invoke mercy and forgiveness?

To pray badly is not to pray. For work, for useless talk, for pleasure, you are all activity; only for prayer are you sleepy ... For what you love, to enrich yourself, to show off vanity, you are all attention; only for the prayer you allow yourself the hundred voluntary distractions!… For the fun, for the walk, for the friend, you are all will and ardor; only for the prayer you have the yawn, the boredom, and you leave it for a trifle!… This is not praying, but dishonoring God. But don't mess with God !!

PRACTICE. - Let us be convinced of the great duty of prayer; let us always recite it morning and evening with fervor.