Prayer Advice From The Saints

When I had my conversion I started to see things differently, more clearly but I didn’t understand how I could be having a conversion. I was baptized a Catholic as a baby. My parents struggled to send all their ten kids to Catholic school. I always considered myself a Catholic but spiritually I wasn’t as connected to God as I should be. I took God for granted and worse than that I became indifferent to God.

At the times when you remember God, increase your prayers, so that when you forget Him, the Lord may remind you.

St. Mark the Ascetic

Now, this part of my life seems like a blur even though it took about three years for me to fall so deeply in love with God once my conversion started. I want God. I want him to be with me every second and I know that the best way to have God with me is to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. I yearn for Jesus. I never want to do anything that would prevent me from being able to receive him. I asked God for the grace to never commit a mortal sin. I pray that nothing will separate me from him.

Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.

St. Therese of Lisieux

During Mass when it’s almost time to receive Holy Communion I get excited. I feel my heart beating. I’m happy and sometimes I cry a little. Father Eric once asked a group of us why we look so serious when we receive Jesus? He told us, “You should be happy.” I am happy inside but the reality of Jesus coming to me in the Eucharist is almost too great to imagine.

Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the angels tremble from awe and fear.

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

I’ve been so blessed. I thank God for Jesus. I thank God for everything He’s given me. I promised God I would keep him in my life by trying hard to do his will. But remember, since we have free will we can let God slip away from us. I let God slip away. I made up my own rules instead of doing God’s will. I quit going to Mass or receiving the sacraments. I might have lost God completely but he was always there waiting patiently for me to want to come back to him. I feel scared when I think about how I shut God out of my life and I thank God for giving me the grace to come back to Him.

Until we have acquired genuine prayer, we are like people teaching children to begin to walk.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Prayer is so important. Prayer is necessary for our salvation. Pray as much as you can all day long. Get in the habit of talking to God when you wake up. Ask Jesus to be with you all day. The rosary is a powerful prayer. Say the rosary at least once a day. When you go to bed at night remember to thank God for your day and as you remember your day don’t forget to tell God you’re sorry for anything you did that might have offended him. Spend a few minutes feeling sorry for your sins and ask God for the grace to help you do better tomorrow. Ask God to give you another chance and for the grace to be holy.

Take yourself off to the garden of olives or the foot of the cross, and stay there. Our Lord will speak to you; and you listen to Him.

St. Bernadette

Think about this! Every time we pray we let God know we believe in him. I went through a long period of time when I didn’t pray at all. That’s like living the same house with someone and never talking to them, almost as if they didn’t exist.

O, Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there thy cheerful beams.

St. Augustine of Hippo

God loves us and wants us to talk to him. God doesn’t speak to us as he did to Moses and Abraham or the prophets in the Old Testament but God speaks to us. God speaks to us through our conscience and our heart. I needed to get into the practice of sincerely praying from my heart so I could hear what God was telling me and so I would know what God was asking of me. That’s how it works and if it wasn’t for my conversion, I wouldn’t be writing this to you today.

After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the Devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if Satan’s temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he’ll have an incentive to leave you alone.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

I pray for you every day when I recite the Chaplet of Divine Mercy that you may stay in the love of Christ or come to know our Lord. Pray for me that I may continue to stay strong in faith of my merciful God who loves me even when I’m not so lovable.

“I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. I will spend all my free moments at the feet of the Master hidden in the Blessed Sacrament.”

St. Faustina Kowalska