After reading these words we can understand how prayer offered up with involuntary distractions is true, holy prayer.  St. Thomas tells us “Dicendum quod in spiritu et veritate orat, qui ex instinctu spiritus ad orandum accedit, etiamsi ex aliqua infirmitate mens postmodum evagetur....  Evagatio vero mentis quae fit praeter propositum orationis fructum non tollat” (2.2. q. 83, a. 13).

Nevertheless, every effort should be made to avoid and to banish distractions.  The ways of doing this are given in all treatises on prayer.  Every priest knows them well.  There are negative means and positive means.  The negative means consist in withdrawing the senses and the powers of the soul from everything disturbing the soul’s converse with God; in guarding against any too absorbing interest in worldly affairs, so that the mind is unmanageable and cannot be fixed on sacred things.  St. Francis of Assisi, working at a piece of furniture before saying Terce, was, during the saying of that hour disturbed by the thought of his manual work.  When he re-entered his cell he took the bit of work and threw it in the fire saying, “I wish to sacrifice to the Lord the thing which hindered my prayer to Him.”

The positive means of avoiding and of banishing distractions are given above; they are to read slowly, to read every word, to read in a becoming position, to observe choir directions, to give ample time to each Hour.  Another rule given by writers on the pious recitation of the Office, is to pause at certain places in the psalms to renew attention and elicit affections.  Some authors recommend such pauses at the end of the invitatory, at the end of each hymn, or after each Gloria.  “Study well the Gloria Patri,” said St. Francis of Assisi, “for in it you find the substance of the scriptures.”

V. To apply the mind to what is read is another help to pious recitation.  It seems to be a useless repetition of an obvious fact that to apply the mind to the prayers read, helps to ward off and to drive away distractions.  Such a practice is natural for a person of intelligence, and the Church wishes and expects such intelligent and heartfelt prayer.  God said to the Jewish priests what applies to the Christian priesthood, too:  “And now, O ye priests, this commandment is to you, if you will not hear, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My name, saith the Lord of Hosts, I will curse your blessings, because you have not laid it to heart” (Mal. ii. 1-2).  Christ complained about the Jewish people who honoured Him with their lips, but had their hearts far from Him.  And God’s great servants realized this fully.  St. Paul said, “And he that speaketh by a tongue (the gift of speaking strange tongues) let him pray that he may interpret.  For if I pray in a tongue my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is without fruit.  What is it then?  I will pray with the spirit.  I will pray also with the understanding.  I will sing