prayer it is very profitable, and perhaps more useful than any other act, to address repeated petitions to God, asking with great humility and unbounded confidence for His graces — such as His light, resignation in adversity, patience, perseverance, etc., but, above all, for the inestimable gift of His holy love. ' By obtaining divine love,' says St. Francis of Sales, ' we obtain all graces;' 'For,' says St. Alphonsus, 'he who truly loves God with all his heart, will, of himself, abstain from causing Him the least displeasure, and will strive to please Him to the best of his ability.' If we feel dry or despondent and unable to meditate or pray well, let us repeat many times as earnestly as possible: ' My Jesus, mercy! ' ' Lord, for Thy mercy's sake, assist me!' ' My God, I love Thee!'
"Let us offer all our petitions for grace in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, and we shall surely obtain all that we ask. ' Mental prayer,' said a holy soul, ' is the breathing of the soul, as in corporal breathing the air is first inhaled and then exhaled, so in mental prayer the soul first receives light and other graces from God, and then by acts of self-offering and love, it gives itself wholly to Him.'
"Before concluding the meditation, we should make some specified good resolution, appropriate as far as possible to the subject of our meditation. This resolution should be directed to the shunning of some sin, or of some occasion of sin, to the correction of some defect, or to the practice of some act of virtue during the day.
"The preparation of our meditation consists of (i) an act oi faith in the presence of God, and of adoration; (2) an act of humility and of contrition, and (3) an act of petition for light. We should then recommend ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary by reciting a
