Prayer

It sometimes happens that you go to your prayer
after having spent the whole day dissipated and
without recollection; it is no wonder you are
distracted, for you well deserve it. You follow your
own inclination, you are cross-grained and
resentful in your obedience, lacking in sweetness,
and condescending towards your neighbor, and
then you go boldly to prayer in order to unite your-
self to God and to have consolation and
sweetness. If you find the door shut, why should
you be surprised?