CAPG's Blog 

We do not deny the force of prayer. We feel it. We acknowledge it. We grant it in all its fullness. But we have no time.

What! Christian soul; you have no time to pray!

You are naked, and blind, and deaf and weak, and have no time to pray! Your soul is naked of God's grace;
it is blind to His light; it is deaf to His whispering; it is weak and faint, and yet you have no time to pray.
If your body were naked, would you have no time, think you, to seek wherewith to clothe it?
 If your eyes were blind and could be restored to sight for the asking, would you have no time to ask?
 If your ears were deaf and could receive their hearing by knocking, would you have no time to knock?
Take care soul, take care. Search your heart more searchingly, and you will find that it is not time that you have not;
 it is the inclination, and you have not the inclination because you have not the faith. You have time for your friends,
 but because God is not on your list of friends, you have no time for Him. You have had no introduction.
 You have time for your farms, for your oxen, for your household, for your secular business, nay, even for every
 frivolous amusement; but for God's farm you have "no time;" for God's household you have "no time;"
for the business of God's eternity you have "no time."
Where is your faith, O naked one! O blind one! 0 deaf one! O preoccupied one! This man has had time to make
 himself a judge, a lawyer, a merchant, a millionaire, and has not had time to be a Christian. All have time to take
 their meals. However busy, however pressed, they find time to get them at stated hours, or failing that, they find
 some other time for them. Their meals never fail them. But for their spiritual meals, no time; for their soul's
 nourishment, no time. One-third of life is spent in sleep, and yet we have no time for spiritual repose.
 In a word, for temporal things we have time and to spare, for spiritual things no time.

Beware; this no time drags thousands down to a miserable eternity. Correct this irregularity; in God's August Name
 correct it. If you have every day a certain time set apart for sleep, for meals, for business, for amusements,
have also some time at least for prayer. I am not now speaking of morning and evening prayer. A man need
only be half a Christian to say them. I speak of a time wherein to place yourself daily at God's feet, as did the
 Magdalene, there to talk with Him, to open your hearts to Him; to tell Him your wants, your hopes, your aspirations
 For some short time at least be Mary, if all the rest of the time you are obliged to be Martha. "I have lifted up
my eyes to the mountain whence help shall come. He will not sleep, nor does He sleep. Who keepeth Israel."
 And I do not want you to speak in set phrase from a book. Speak from your heart as to a loving father.
 He bids you call Him Father. Open everything, conceal nothing; He knows everything beforehand; He waits
 only for the asking; and when you ask, ask in groans and sighs. Take a lesson from the worldling.
For what does the worldling groan? For that he is miserable after so many vain efforts to be happy.
Why does he sigh? Because the pleasures and riches and honors of this life fly before him like a butterfly,
no matter how fast he runs.

During your short time of prayer (the shorter the more fervid,) do you likewise sigh and mourn as the worlding
does, but let it be for spiritual things, not temporal ones. Groan for the miserable failure through human weakness
 of your efforts for spiritual advancement. Sigh for the riches and honors of Heaven; groan and sigh thus, and He
Who has said, "Ask and you shall receive," will not desert you. It is want of faith that leaves prayer so distasteful
 to us. If we could catch but one glimpse of Heaven—if we could hear but one phrase of Heaven's melody—
if we could feel but one thrill of Heaven's joys, we should need no urging; our prayer would be spontaneous, gushing,
overflowing. Gold represents everything which men call precious, i.e everything “buyable”, and what is there which
cannot be bought?

It is said that even the most high toned and honorable men have their price. It may indeed take more to buy men of
coarser mold, but still they are to be bought. Now if you had promised you a mountain of this gold, which buys
everything, even to high-toned and honorable men; if this mountain was promised for the asking—or even if it were
promised you for the fetching—or even if it might be yours by force of arms, would you have no time to ask? Would
you have no time to beat up recruits, to buy ammunition, and go to the fighting? And yet what comparison between
 this mountain of gold and the Heaven of eternity? Your mountain of gold, however high, however wide, however deep,
 with the heavens and the earth, will pass away; but the Heaven of eternity never. And yet you would prefer the gold,
 O ye of little faith, and have no time to obtain Heaven by the asking. You have not the intelligence of the tramp,
 low down in the social scale as he is. Give him three pence and he will be with you on the morrow, or if he be not,
 his friend will for him; and when all his friends are exhausted he will have put up a mark on your gate posts to guide
 others to your bounty. You have not the instinct of the robin. Give it a crumb or a small worm and it will be with you
 on the morrow and on the morrow's morrow to the end of time. Your Heavenly Father offers you treasures untold
for the asking. He asks you to ask, and you have no time, O ye of little faith! The tramp will walk miles to gain
your three pence for the asking; the robin will wait at your window by the hour for your crumb; but you have no time.
You have not the intelligence of the tramp, Christian soul. You have not the instinct of the robin, O ye of little faith.
 The wisdom of the nations is crystallized in the proverb, "Where there is the will there is the way." And there is
 the will, Christian soul, where there is faith.

Source: Norbertine Fathers, 1896 (page 93, Annals of St. Joseph, Volumes 8-10)