| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 18 |
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It is told in old monastic legends of St. Francesca that while she was unfailing in her religious duties, never wearying in her devotions, yet if in her time of prayer she was summoned away by any pressing domestic service, she would close her book cheerfully, saying that a wife and mother, when needed for any duty of love, must quit her God at the altar to find him in tasks and services requiring her in her home. So there are times when prayer is not the duty of the hour.
What, then, are we to understand by the counsel to pray without ceasing? For one thing we know that prayer is part of the expression of the Christian’s very life. One who does not pray is not a Christian. We are God’s children, and if we always keep ourselves in the relation of children to our Father, loving, obedient, trustful, submissive to his will, we shall pray without ceasing. Our communion with him never will be broken. That was the way Jesus lived. He was not always on his knees. His days were filled with intense activities. Often he had not time to eat or to sleep. Yet there was never any instant of interruption of his fellowship with his Father. He was in communion with him even in his busiest hours. And he would have us live in the same way. We shall then pray at our work. Our heart will be in communion with Christ even when our hands are engaged in the day’s duties. One writes:
“The busy fingers fly; the eyes may see
Only the glancing needle which they hold;
But all my life is blossoming inwardly,
And every breath is like a litany;
While through each labour, like a thread of gold,
Is woven the sweet consciousness of thee.”
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