would like never to lose sight of it, and if the mind is at times drawn off by other objects, the heart never is. Just so is it with prayer. We have the merit to be always praying when we wish so to be, when at every moment we are ready to follow the movements of grace. It would be quite a mistake to imagine that the avocations of life are an obstacle to this prayer. On the contrary, they are, or at least may be, an exercise of it, and there is a prayer that is correctly called the prayer of action. Every action done for God, as being His will, and in the way in which God wills, is a prayer, better even than an actual prayer that might be made at this time. It is not even necessary that the action be good and holy in itself; an indifferent act is no less a prayer in virtue of the intention with which we do it. Thus the Apostle virtually enjoins the faithful to pray always when he says: 'All whatsoever you do in word or in work, all things do you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him' (Col. iii. 17). And again: 'Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God' (i Cor. x. 31). We are always praying, if we are doing our duty, and are doing it to please God.
"As there is a prayer of action, so is there
