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PRACTICE OF MENTAL PRAYER

But over and above all else, the peace which surpasses all understanding is the rest found in God's Will, infinitely just, holy, adorable and worthy of love; an unselfish rest, which makes the soul say with Jesus in the Garden: Father, not my will, but thine be done!"¹ or again: "The chalice which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it?" ²

Hope is the second spiritual joy produced by prayer. By constantly meditating on the Holy Gospel the soul, little by little, is imbued with this consoling thought, which Our Lord recalls so often: that the pains and sufferings of life on earth are the gold with which the infinite happiness of heaven is bought. Then, instinctively, in reverse of fortune the soul says to itself: ''Blessed are the poor;" in affliction:'' Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake," finding true and solid consolation in words which it realizes in its very depths.

Love of God is the third and most exalted of the joys experienced in prayer. Noth- ing is sweeter than love; to seek to prove it would be both useless and superfluous.

¹ Luke 22: 42.. ² John 18: 11.