great sea, a burden to myself; while my spirit would move upwards, and my flesh delights to be below. My God, be not thou far from me, nor turn away in anger from thy servant. Command the winds and the sea, that there may be a great calm in my heart. Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hidden from thee.
§ 4. Attention and reverence in time of prayer. Remedy against distractions.
Christ. What a man suffers against his will shall never be imputed to him for sin. Only do thy best to drive away those troublesome flies which defile the sacrifice of prayer. Endure them patiently, if thou canst not overcome them. The prayer will lose none, nay, it will rather gain in merit, if thou behave manfully. For the struggle and conflict of prayer is my delight, and I am often most near at the moment when I seem to be farthest away. Only be careful always to have a firm purpose of praying with attention and devotion, and especially at the commencement, which is a point of the greatest importance. ‘So that if it happen, through human infirmity, that the mind is distracted in prayer, still the efficacy of this resolution, made at the beginning, is diffused through all the prayer, and preserves
its value, as long as it is not broken by a contrary purpose and will. For what, my son, do I desire, but thy heart? If that is good, all is good. That thou mayest, however, the more effectually strengthen thy heart in prayer, always remember this one thing when thou prayest, namely, who it is with whom thou hast to do. For who among you is not astonished, awed, and full of reverence and fear, when he seriously considers that he stands in my presence, who am his judge, is Lord and creator, and sovereign king? Who would not be afraid to turn his back upon me, or his mind to idle and empty thoughts, still more his eyes to vanity, and his lips to trifling conversation? Behold the disposition, the fear and dread of my beloved ones, Abraham, Moses, David, John the Precursor, Peter, the Publican, and many others, when they stood before me. Am not I the supreme monarch of heaven and earth, before whom the cherubim and seraphim, and all the angelic powers, tremble? He who comes to God must believe that He is, said my Apostle. But so it is, your unbelief and blindness, or else your weak sense of my presence, makes you irreverent in my presence, before whom the pillars of the world tremble.
Man. I am ashamed, O Lord, when I think who
