Course XLVII - Teaching 10: Parable the Disciples on their Way to Emaus (January 21st, 1956)

I believe that life of souls consecrated to God and prayer are only one thing.
We realize a life of continuous prayer by fulfilling our Vows.
A soul finds that prayer is a problem because always deals with the most difficult side, while prayer is something simple and within the reach of all.
Prayer is union with God; it grants neither a vision of higher worlds nor the gift of healing the sick, but a participation in the Divine Husband’s sorrows.
True union is not bliss or ecstasy; it is that union in which we share any pains and sufferings of the Husband. This is the highest union of all.
Once Enrico Susso asked Christ why he had to suffer so much physically and morally and in any form, and Christ replied, “Because he wanted to protect him with a thorn fence, not to come back to the world any more”. This is to suffer, to endure and to be despised in order to take part in the Divine Husband’s anguish and sorrow.
Prayer is the natural state of a consecrated soul; to achieve this state, one has to look for silence and to practice it. Man tends to constant talk and dissipation, but a soul in search of God should tend to tell God everything, and to converse with Him more and more briefly and simply. The one that gets used to talk to God, says what is strictly necessary, and uses few words.
We realize our prayer by talking to the Divine Husband.
The Divine Husband would say to Saint Catherine of Siena: “I want this: your conversation must be with angels”.
Do not think of prayer as ecstasy or continuous bliss, with your arms raised to Heaven. This is for certain unusual souls. The true union with God is to remain continuously in His Presence and to tell Him all, making of Him our Beloved Husband, our Friend, the infallible Superior, and the Spiritual Guide whom we shall tell our secrets. He is our secret Lover: as we get up, our first thought is for Him, and also as we retire, our last thought is for Him.
We should not waste one minute. We should ask of Him all those things that we desire: lights, graces and love that our hearts need. Our response must be a habit, and we should not talk to men, but to Him. Saint Therese lived in this continuous Presence; this Presence was so real that sometimes, while she sewed or worked, even amid dryness and struggle, she quivered as if Anyone were near to her.
If we are in this Presence, any distractions shall disappear, and bad thoughts cannot come any near. Once there was certain novice along with Ramakrishna’s disciples, who was not very sure about his vocation, and wished an evidence of it. One day, as they were assembled in meditation, he wished to think of bad things to disturb them all, but he begun to feel quite restless and uneasy. As he told this to his Director, the latter said that this occurred naturally since how can he have a bad thought being close to the Master?
As we leave the world, we gain the gift of Union, since we can control more easily our nature by disciplined life and Stability Area.
Only two disciples recognized Christ when He broke the bread: that is, violence has been made.