It is not necessary for being with GOD to be always at church:  we may make an oratory of our heart wherein to retire from time to time to converse with Him in meekness, humility and love.  Every one is capable of such familiar conversation with GOD, some more, some less:  He knows what we can do.  Let us begin, then.  Perhaps He expects but one generous resolution on our part.  Have courage.  We have but little time to live; you are near sixty-four, and I am almost eighty.  Let us live and die with GOD.  Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant to us while we are with Him; and the greatest pleasures will be, without Him, a cruel punishment to us.  May He be blessed for all.  Amen.

Accustom yourself, then, by degrees thus to worship Him, to beg His grace, to offer Him your heart from time to time in the midst of your business, even every moment, if you can.  Do not always scrupulously confine yourself to certain rules, or particular forms of devotion, but act with a general confidence in GOD, with love and humility.  You may assure ——­ of my poor prayers, and that I am their servant, and particularly

Yours in our LORD, &c.

EIGHTH LETTER.

(Concerning wandering thoughts in Prayer.)

You tell me nothing new; you are not the only one that is troubled with wandering thoughts.  Our mind is extremely roving; but, as the will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to GOD as their last end.

When the mind, for want of being sufficiently reduced by recollection at our first engaging in devotion, has contracted certain bad habits of wandering and dissipation, they are difficult to overcome, and commonly draw us, even against our wills, to the things of the earth.

I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults, and to humble ourselves before GOD.  I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words in prayer:  many words and long discourses being often the occasions of wandering.  Hold yourself in prayer before GOD, like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate.  Let it be your business to keep your mind in the presence of the LORD.  If it sometimes wander and withdraw itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that:  trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind than to re-collect it:  the will must bring it back in tranquility.  If you persevere in this manner, GOD will have pity on you.

One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times:  you should keep it strictly in the presence of GOD; and being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wanderings.

I have told you already at large, in my former letters, of the advantages we may draw from this practice of the presence of GOD:  let us set about it seriously, and pray for one another.