Fruits of Prayer

205. Let God be the Bridegroom and the beloved of your soul ; remain always in His presence, and so you shall avoid sin, learn to love Him, and all things will prosper with you.

206. Enter into your innermost heart, and labour in the presence of God, the Bridegroom of the soul, Who is ever present doing you good.

207. Strive to be continually in the presence of God, and to preserve the purity which He teaches.

208. By prayer aridity is expelled, devotion in creased, and the interior practice of virtue is established in the soul.

209. By shutting the eyes to the defects of others, keeping silence, and conversing continually with God, great imperfections are rooted out of your soul, which thereby becomes possessed of great virtues.

210. When prayer is made in the pure and simple understanding of God, it seems to the soul to have lasted but a moment, though in fact it occupied much time ; this is that prayer of a moment, of which it is said that it pierces the clouds.