Always There

"During the many occupations that fill the day, our minds must be fixed on God and our eyes always turned towards Him... for He is always within the depths of our souls, always, always, always there, listening to us and asking us to speak to Him sometimes.

"Is this quite true?  Yes, the Eternal God, my loving God, is within me.  He is the Divine Guest of my soul.  I must live my life with Him as much as my weakness, my misery, my meanness, my lukewarmness, my cowardice will allow.

"This will not deter me in other occupations nor separate me from others, it will take only a moment of time; only instead of being alone I will have a Companion in my work and in my duties.  Now and again, I will ... remain in recollection for a few seconds thinking, 'You are there my God, and I love You.'  Thus I will develop the habit... 

"It is written of Saint Vincent Ferrer:  'whether in the streets or the choir, or his own cell, or preaching, or on a journey, or whatever he did, he was always tranquil, because he had made an oratory in his heart, and there conversed uninterruptedly with God, without any outward thing disturbing him.'"

(from Sheltering the Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious, The Peter Reilly Co, Philadelphia, 1952, pp.  89-90)

Painting:  Anker Der Gemeindeschreiber