Part 2, Chapter 2
I talk to many people each week. I talk to them on the phone, or in person. I prefer to talk to people in person because than I can see their non-verbal communication. There is just something different about being in the presence of another that allows communication to be better. Today, though many people are chatting, messaging, twittering, emailing which is communication, but it loses some of its closeness and intimacy. Sometimes I call people and have to leave a message for them. Communication is so very important.
I believe that sometimes we approach prayer like we are leaving a message and that God, who is busy doing something else, will get back to us when He has time. This is just not true. God is able to infinitely communicate with every human being all the time. He is not like us, He is All Powerful. Our Father in Heaven can and does communicate with us all the time. Many times we are just not aware of how He is communicating with us. We forget that God is always present to us. We don’t remember this and it is hard because we don’t always see Him.
So today, St. Francis De Sales has us “placing []oursel[ves] in the presence of God” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 39). We need to remember that we are always in His presence, that it is His desire that we come to prayer and that He is inviting us to be there. St. Francis De Sales gives us four different ways to remember this each time we go to prayer so that we will be prepared. One of these ways might strike us more than the others; the important thing is to do one of them so that we are remembering that we are in God’s holy presence.