“Gradually grace will visit you. You will enter into joy. You will begin to live in peace and then you will become stronger by virtue of the divine grace. You will not become angry, or irritated, you will not be offended, you will not judge others, but rather receive everyone with love. You will have that which Saint Paul describes: love does not boast…it does not behave in an unseemly manner… it does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in truth; it covers and protects all things, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. The prayer purifies the soul and keeps the mind in check. The most perfect work is done in the depths of the human soul, which is hermetically sealed and known only to God. And so we witness something extraordinary: people who are transformed into children of God, even though they had reached the very depths of their self-destructiveness.

 

And I, too, wretched and crocked-up fellow that I am, make this effort. I don’t give myself over openly in prayer, but secretly I pray. Do you understand? The grace of God comes and overshadows you too. It brings a freshness and joy to you also as we live together, eat together, talk and pray and simply keep company with one another. Do you understand? Only someone who is thoughtless, someone who is ‘thick- skinned’ and cannot be moved by prayer, remains a stranger to grace. Pray for God to reveal to you the ‘unseen’ things. There is much that we do not know. Say to Christ,‘Whatever You want. Whatever Your love desires.’ He will lead you. Look to Him.

–  ‘Wounded by Love’