Be thankful to God. You are not abandoned. God holds you like an infant against his breast. It may seem the fire of first fervor is gone, but God has hidden it under the ashes so that you may ground yourself in true humility and know your nothingness. A time will come when the Holy Spirit will blow upon the ashes, and a fire more lively and bright that before will be lit because you have been faithful to God.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)
Sometimes it happens that when you start to pray, you find you can pray well. At other times, even when you have expended great effort, you may find your efforts frustrated. This experience is to make you learn that you must exert yourself constantly, for having once gained the gift of prayer, you must be careful to keep it safe.
—Evagrius Ponticus (345-399)
Whether you pray alone or in the company of others, try never to pray simply as a matter of routine but always with conscious awareness of what you are doing.
—Evagrius Ponticus (345-399)
Always be on your guard against your anger, and then you will not be carried away by other violent desires. Anger gives fuel to all sorts of other passions and always clouds the spiritual eye, disrupting the state of pure prayer.
—Evagrius Ponticus (345-399)
If you store up grievances and nurse old animosities inside yourself, and then try to pray, you will be like someone going to the well for water with a bucket that is full of holes.
—Evagrius Ponticus (345-399)
Remain calm in times of dryness.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
