Intimate friends are characterized by mutual benevolence: each one makes the interest of the other the subject of his thoughts and of his plans...
In such manner should we live in the intimacy of our Divine Guest. We should turn to him frequently, to speak of ourselves, our sorrows, our joys. We should, in all simplicity, as between friends, tell Him of our anxieties, our needs, our plans, our projects.
But we should speak to Him also of His own interests and especially of the salvation of souls, which is God's great desire. We should beg His grace, the grace of the Faith, for those outside the Church, and the grace of Hope and Charity for those inside the Church. By so doing, we are making the interests of our Divine Guest our own.
Some may think that such a life of Union with God is only for saints, that a life of intimacy in which the soul constantly turns to God, as to a loving and beloved guest, is not for the ordinary faithful. This view is incorrect.
Intimacy with God is not for the saints only, it is for all of us.
God dwells in each soul which is in the state of grace and calls each of us to be united to Him in intimate friendship.'
(from 'Listening to the Indwelling Presence' by a Religious, Pelligrini, 1940, pp. 62-63)
Painting: Gaspar de Crayer, The Vision of St Theresa of Avila