Why Good Thoughts Slip Away

If only we could keep those spiritual thoughts as a lasting possession, in the same way and with the same ease with which we usually conceive their first seeds! When they have been conceived in our hearts, whether by recalling the Scriptures, or by the memory of some spiritual deeds, or by gazing on heavenly mysteries, they vanish all too soon and disappear in a kind of unnoticed flight. And when our soul has found some other occasions for spiritual feeling, different ones crowd in on us again, and those we had grasped are scattered and fly lightly away. So the mind holds on to nothing steadily and keeps no firm grip of its own on holy thoughts. Even when it does seem to keep them for a while, it must be thought to have conceived them by chance and not on purpose. For how can we think that their rising should be credited to our own will, if they do not last and stay with us? [a]

But so that we do not wander any further from the plan of the discussion we had begun because of this question, or put off any longer the explanation you promised of the nature of prayer, we will keep this for its own time. We ask to be told at once what prayer is like, especially since the blessed apostle urges us never to stop praying, when he says, “Pray without ceasing.” So we want to be taught first what it is like, that is, how prayer ought always to be offered up, and then how we can secure this, whatever it is, and practice it without ceasing. For daily experience and the explanation of your holiness both show us that it cannot be done with any slight purpose of heart, since you have laid it down that the aim of a monk and the height of all perfection lie in the perfecting of prayer.