"My food is to do the will of My Father." (John 4:34)

We need to take these words of Jesus and make them our own. We should all be trying to live our lives like this - that our food is to do the will of God. Prayer and the interior life do not end in the silence of our rooms, but we can take them with us, out into the world. The love within our hearts will accompany us everywhere, into every situation of our lives, and prayer will follow. We can make a prayer of all that we do. If we go to work we can offer this work to the Lord for His glory. Even the smallest of tasks can be united to God in prayer; this is how the contemplatives live each day continually in the presence of God. If we are doing a small, boring, or mindless task such as washing the dishes, we can offer this small task to God with love: "Father, I do this small task with love for You. I do this task not only to keep my kitchen and home clean and healthy for my family, but also to offer this work to You with love, for Your glory, just as Your Son, Jesus, spent the first thirty years of His life on earth doing such manual tasks." Whilst you work you can pray: each time you do the dishes say The Lord's Prayer five times to honour each of the five wounds of Jesus, and for the intention of the conversion of souls. In this way even the small and mundane tasks become a powerful act for the conversion of souls and brings glory to God. If the task you are doing requires too much concentration for prayer, then give glory to God with a little hymn. You can praise God like this and put the spirit of joy within your heart at the same time. Make a prayer of everything; we must love to pray and pray to love!

"You are not your own, you were bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19)

All that we are and all that we possess we owe to God. We must thank God daily for our creation, for His love and mercy, for His forgiveness, and for the graces that He bestows upon us. We were bought at a terrible price - the blood and sufferings of Jesus Christ. Do we not owe God more than one hour on a Sunday morning? Our Father desires that we have a close and loving relationship with Him. But what kind of relationship do a father and child have if they live in the same house but only speak to each other once a week? Would their love not grow cold? To keep our relationship with God alive, we need to communicate with Him many times each day, we need to tell Him how much we love Him. We need to communicate not only our sorrows and needs, but also our joys and desires. Prayer is the telegraph poles that hold up the lines of communication between ourselves and God, if we place these poles too far apart, then when the storms come the lines will be blown down and fall to the ground and we shall feel as though we are alone. Place the poles close together throughout the day and our lines of communication will remain open and strong and the storms of this life will not destroy them.

For God alone my soul waits in silence, from Him comes my salvation. (Psalm 62:1)

Meditation is a very important part of the interior life, it is perhaps as important as prayer. In prayer we seek God, in meditation we find Him! If prayer is food for the soul, then meditation is water. The soul cannot live without prayer, but without meditation it cannot thrive! In meditating upon the life of Jesus, we come to know Him more intimately, and to love Him more dearly. In studying Jesus words and His actions, we come to recognise His great love for us. " O God, Thou art my God, I seek Thee, my soul thirsts for Thee; my flesh faints for Thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is." (Psalm 63:1) Could David possibly have felt such a thirst for His God if he had not meditated upon his love for God? How else could David have acquired such a longing for God? It is not possible to love someone with such intensity if one rarely thinks of that person. David must have spent hours thinking about God, and this is all that meditation is, we simply turn our thoughts to God. There are many types of meditation but the one that is most common is simply to read a small passage of God's word and then meditate upon it, asking the Holy Spirit for guidance. Meditating on Christ's Passion is also a good exercise for calling to mind the great depth of Christ's mercy. The Saints gained all their strength from meditating on the Lord's Passion. One exercise that is very moving is to read Isaiah chapter 53 and between each verse repeat the prayer, "I adore You O Christ and I praise You, because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world. Amen." This is a very moving and powerful meditation that will swell the heart with love for Jesus. Music can also be a meditation, what better way to meditate than to sing a love song to Jesus, a hymn of worship, a song of praise and adoration.