"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him." (John 4:23)

We need to open our hearts to the movement of the Holy Spirit; we need to learn to listen for the small still voice. Then we must invest all our emotions into our prayers. To do this we need to care passionately about what we are praying for. If we are praying for the church, we need to pray with the feelings that are appropriate to this cause. We need to reveal our love to God, and pour out the emotions that we feel for the members of His church. If we are praying for missionaries, we need to let God know how much we desire with all our hearts the success of these missionaries. If we are praying for sinners, let us reveal to God our love for them and beg Him for conversions, letting Him know how much we care for our brothers and sisters. When we pray The Lord's Prayer, do we pray a cold repetition without feelings or do we invest our emotions and pray with a heart full of love that, God's will be done on earth as it is in Heaven? If we find ourselves praying for these intentions through a sense of duty and not because we feel passionately about these things, then what does this say to God about our love?

Whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall
give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14)

The most meaningful conversations with God come from the heart and not the brain, they are spoken within the soul rather than upon the lips. St Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself will intercede for us with sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8:26). It is no wonder that the contemplatives say that at times they do not need words to pray and to love the Lord, but they just bathe in those Living Waters, and unite their hearts with God in the silence of a love so deep, so pure, that too many words would only get in the way. Let us pray each day that the Holy Spirit will grant us this gift, that we might unite our hearts to the heart of God and live in His presence every moment of our lives. The Spirit will teach us to pray, He will teach us to find God in our daily lives, He will teach us to love God in and through all things.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3)

If we wish to be pleasing to the Lord we must remain humble at all times knowing that it is God who will add value to all our prayers, intercessions and works of mercy. It is the Holy Spirit who encourages us in these things, and it is God's grace that perfects these things within us and brings from them the fruits that we offer to our Lord for the good of our souls and that of our neighbours. In prayer we should always have the humility of a creature before His Lord and Master, but also the confidence of a beloved child before his loving Father. We should try to have humility of spirit, contrition of heart and confidence in prayer whenever we come before the Lord.

"Thou dost keep in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee,
because he trusts in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3)

Never fear that you are not worthy to seek God's love, for none are. But Jesus said that it is the Fathers "good pleasure" to give us the kingdom of heaven. We should try our best to have faith at all times and under all circumstances if we wish to love God well. The more a soul puts his trust in the Lord, the more that soul will be rewarded by that trust. It is impossible for God to fail us; He will never abandon us as long as we keep looking to Him for guidance. We may have times of great trial and what seems like unanswered prayer, but God is always with us. We can be confident under all circumstances when we hand every situation over to God and say, "Your will be done".