their good works.  It will be so because these have said in their hearts, “Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are.”  They imagine themselves privileged; they pretend that they alone have penetrated the mysteries of the kingdom of God; they have a language and science of their own; they believe that their zeal can accomplish everything.  Their regular lives favor their vanity; but in truth they are incapable of self-sacrifice, and they go to their devotions with their hearts full of pride and presumption.  Unhappy are those who pray in this manner!  Unhappy are those whose prayers do not render them more humble, more submissive, more watchful over their faults, and more willing to live in obscurity!

4.  We must pray with love.  It is love says St. Augustine, that asks, that seeks, that knocks, that finds, and that is faithful to what it finds.  We cease to pray to God as soon as we cease to love Him, as soon as we cease to thirst for His perfections.  The coldness of our love is the silence of our hearts toward God.  Without this we may pronounce prayers, but we do not pray; for what shall lead us to meditate upon the laws of God if it be not the love of Him who has made these laws?  Let our hearts be full of love, then, and they will pray.  Happy are they who think seriously of the truths of religion; but far more happy are they who feel and love them!  We must ardently desire that God will grant us spiritual blessings; and the ardor of our wishes must render us fit to receive the blessings.  For if we pray only from custom, from fear, in the time of tribulation—–­ if we honor God only with our lips, while our hearts are far from Him—­if we do not feel a strong desire for the success of our prayers—­if we feel a chilling indifference in approaching Him who is a consuming fire—­if we have no zeal for His glory—­if we do not feel hatred for sin, and a thirst for perfection, we can not hope for a blessing upon such heartless prayers.

5.  We must pray with perseverance.  The perfect heart is never weary of seeking God.  Ought we to complain if God sometimes leaves us to obscurity, and doubt, and temptation?  Trials purify humble souls, and they serve to expiate the faults of the unfaithful.  They confound those who, even in their prayers, have flattered their cowardice and pride.  If an innocent soul, devoted to God, suffer from any secret disturbance, it should be humble, adore the designs of God, and redouble its prayers and its fervor.  How often do we hear those who every day have to reproach themselves with unfaithfulness toward God complain that He refuses to answer their prayers!  Ought they not to acknowledge that it is their sins which have formed a thick cloud between Heaven and them, and that God has justly hidden Himself from them?  How often has He recalled us from our wanderings!  How often, ungrateful as we are, have we been deaf to His voice and insensible to His goodness!  He would make us feel that we are blind