Devotions and prayer: thinking often of God is very useful

There can be no state of prayer without habitual renunciation of oneself
So far we have come to these conclusions: one cannot always think of God, which is not necessary. One can be constantly united with God even without constantly thinking of him: the only union truly required is that of our will with the will of God.
What then is the usefulness, so praised by all the masters of spirituality, of exercising the presence of God?
This is what we will try to explain
We said that in all our actions we must have total purity of intention and give our state duty, generously observed, the maximum supernatural orientation. In this way our life, even outside the moments dedicated to prayer, will be a life of prayer.
It is understood that, in order to act in this way in a constant way and with an absolute purity of intention, to make ourselves sufficiently free from the whim and the trouble of working, to remain masters of ourselves -or rather because God is the only master and our actions are under the influence of the Holy Spirit in everything - the habit of looking at God before starting an action or making a decision must be of great help.
In the Gospel we always see that our Lord, when he is about to perform important acts, stops for a moment, raises his eyes to the Father, and only after a few moments of recollection does he undertake the desired work. Et elevatis oculis in caelum: it is an expression that is found with eloquent frequency. And even when he does not manifest the gesture outside, he is certainly present in his soul.
The ideal is the same for us too. This special and constant dependence of the soul on the Holy Spirit is particularly facilitated by the fact that the Holy Spirit, placed in the place of honor in the soul, is invited to take explicitly and officially the direction of all our determinations. It is impossible to practice self-renunciation perfectly without a deep spirit of recollection; one cannot radically submit to the invisible Guest of the soul if one does not maintain himself in Him in perfect intimacy. The spirit of death, that is, the denial of oneself, cannot reign except when the spirit of life has settled victorious over the ruins, and "flies over the waters" as at the beginning of creation.
Certainly those who do not strive to become a "Sancta Sanctorum", that is, not a house of traffic, but a true living dwelling of God, do not allow the merchants to be expelled from the temple.
Two bright conclusions are thus drawn:
- one cannot depend absolutely on the Holy Spirit - that is, live truly "in Christ" - without total renunciation of oneself;
- there is no total renunciation without a constant spirit of faith, without the habit of inner silence, silence all populated by the divine.
Most people do not see the link between memory of the King and service of the King; between inner silence made seem- of immobility and continuous detachment from everything, which is supreme activity.
Just look carefully. The link exists, tight, strong, unbreakable. Seek a collected soul, it will also be detached from earthly things; a detached soul will also be gathered. It will be easy to see it to the extent that it will be easy to find one or the other of these two souls. Finding one or the other means having found both. Those who have practiced detachment or recollection know that they have made a double conquest with a single action.
There can be no habitual renunciation of oneself without constant recollection
If a soul, in order to be fully "Christ" and fully Christian, must live in total dependence on the Holy Spirit, and if one can live in this dependence only on condition of living gathered, it goes without saying that recollection - understood as we have explained - constitutes one of the most precious virtues that can be acquired.
Father Pergmayr, one of the authors who best spoke, in a concise and essential way, of recollection, does not hesitate to affirm: «The shortest way to perfect love consists in having God continually present: this avoids any sin and does not leave time to think about other things, to complain or murmur. The presence of God, sooner or later, leads to perfection ».
Do not try to live in inner silence, it means giving up living deeply as a Christian. Christian life is a life of faith, life in the invisible and for the invisible ... Those who do not have frequent relations with this world that escapes the external senses, risk remaining on the threshold of true Christian life.
«Yes, we must stop inhabiting only the outside and the most superficial layers of our soul; we must enter and penetrate into the deepest ravines, where we will finally find ourselves in the most intimate of ourselves. Here, we have to go further and go to the center! who is no longer in us, but is in God. There is the Master, who can sometimes allow us to live with him even for a whole day.
«When he has allowed us, for once, to spend a day with him, we would like to follow him always and everywhere, as his apostles, his disciples and his servants.
«Yes, Lord, when I can be with you for a whole day, I will always want to follow you» (1).
Loneliness is the home of the strong. Fortress is an active virtue and the silence that we will be able to practice will indicate the value of our works (2). Noise is the home of the weak. Most men seek fun and distractions only to dispense themselves from acting as they should. You get lost in nothingness in order not to get lost in everything. The God of the strong came into the world in the silence of the night (3). Victims of appearances, we only appreciate what makes noise. Silence is the father of effective action. Before gushing singing, the spring water broke through the hole, silently piercing the hard granite.
It is clear that when we thus recommend silence, we mean inner silence; this is what we must impose on our imagination and our senses, in order not to come at all instants, in spite of ourselves, projected outside of ourselves.
If you leave the oven open continuously - to use an expression of Saint Teresa - the heat is lost. It takes a long time to heat the atmosphere, but it only takes a moment for all the warmth to go away; a crack in the wall, and cold air penetrates: everything is to be redone, everything to be regained.
Excellent protection of inner silence and outer silence; and the reason for the grates and cloisters. But even in the midst of the noise, everyone can build around themselves a desert area, a halo of solitude that does not reveal anything unduly.
The drawback is not noise, but unnecessary noise; it is not conversations, but useless conversations; not the occupations, but the useless occupations. In other words: everything that is not needed, harms in a regrettable way. To give to the useless what could be offered to the Essential is a betrayal and a nonsense!
There are two ways to get away from God, but both disastrous: mortal sin and distraction. Mortal sin objectively breaks our union with God; voluntary distraction breaks it subjectively or decreases its intensity. We should
speak only when keeping quiet was worse. The Gospel says that we will have to account not only for bad words, but also for every idle word.
We must expertly profit our life, and therefore suppress all that diminishes its good fruits; especially in the spiritual life, which is the most important.
When you think about the interest that most people feel for things of no value, for the noise of the street, the agitation of a puppet or the nonsense printed in many newspapers, it seems like you are dreaming! What happiness would have suddenly in the world if, by an unexpected case, all the useless noises disappeared in a flash! If only those who speak to say nothing were silent. What a liberation, it would be paradise! The cloisters are oases of peace because silence is taught there. It is not always possible; but at least it's taught, and it's already a lot. Elsewhere you don't even try. Not that speaking is not a great art and conversation a precious relief, indeed, perhaps the most precious of existence; but use should not be confused with abuse. To celebrate the armistice or the unknown soldier, some asked for a few minutes of silence: this silence was consequent to the victory. If the world learned to keep silent, how many internal victories would follow the practice of recollection! Whoever keeps his tongue, says St. James, is a kind of saint (4). There are few perfect souls because few souls love silence. Silence means perfection; not always, but often. Try it, it's worth it; you will be amazed at the result.