Prayer Quotes

Quotes on Prayer by the Saints

Prayer is a pasturage, a field, wherein all the virtues find their nourishment, growth, and strength. -- St. Catherine of Siena

Souls who aspire to a sublime union with God by contemplation usually suffer interior purgations in one way or another. -- St. Paul of the Cross

When you are alone in your room, take your crucifix, kiss its five wounds reverently, tell it to preach you a little sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading of the thorns, the nails, the precious Blood. Oh, what an eloquent sermon! -- St. Paul of the Cross

Impel your intellect continually to prayer and you will destroy the evil thoughts that beset your heart. -- St. Thalassios the Libyan

A man without prayer is an animal without the use of reason. -- St. Philip Neri

Are you making no progress in prayer? Then you need only offer God the prayers which the Savior has poured out for us in the sacrament of the altar. Offer God his fervent love in reparation for your sluggishness. In the course of every activity pray as follows: "My God, I do this or I endure that in the heart of your Son and according to his holy counsels. I offer it to you in reparation for anything blameworthy or imperfect in my actions." Continue to do this in every circumstance of life. -- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

If you practice the holy exercise of Spiritual Communion a good many times each day, within a month you will see yourself completely changed. -- St. Leonard of Port Maurice

When the intellect prays without distraction it afflicts the heart; and "a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:17). -- St. Mark the Ascetic

The prayer of the sick person is his patience and his acceptance of the sickness for the love of Jesus Christ. This has great worth when it is motivated by the imitation of how much Our Lord suffered for us, and by penance for our sins. -- St. Charles of Sezze

Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven. -- St. Ephrem of Syria

A man wanted to do evil, but first prayed as usual; and finding himself prevented by God, he was then extremely thankful. -- St. Mark the Ascetic

It is better to say one Our Father fervently and devoutly than a thousand with no devotion and full of distraction. -- St. Edmund

Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home. -- St. Rose of Viterbo

We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone. -- St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. - Saint Therese of Lisieux

Prayer is never more perfect than when it ascends from the very depth and essence of the soul; we pray, then, in the spirit of God. This is a sublime language, but when God wills, He makes even the stones speak. Let the sovereign God reign in your spirit; there ought to be a reciprocal repose: God in you, and you in God. O sweet, O divine operation! - St. Paul of the Cross

He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. -- St. Benedict of Nursia

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. --St. James 

The great method of prayer is to have none. If in going to prayer one can form in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suffice for all method. -- St. Jane Frances de Chantal 

Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray. -- St. Louis de Montfort 

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.  -St. Augustine

Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray.  - St. Louis de Montfort

Just as love and self-control destroy evil thought so contemplation and prayer destroy all self-exaltation. - St. Thalassios the Libyan

As the body without the soul cannot love, so the soul without prayer is dead and emits an offensive odor.  - St. John Chrysostom

O amiable Goodness! O infinite Charity! O my God and my All! O supreme Sweetness! Make these aspirations, or any others, as God will inspire you; but remember that if, in making one of these short prayers of love, your soul regain her peace and recollection in God, it is unnecessary to make a second; continue, rather, this silence, this repose of the soul in God, which includes excellently all the acts that we can ever make. - St. Paul of the Cross

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.  -St. Teresa of Avila

Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry  -St. Pio of Pietrelcino

Work is prayer. - St. John Bosco

Stretch forth your hand towards God as an infant towards its father to be conducted by Him.  -- St. Francis de Sales

We should have frequent recourse to prayer, and persevere a long time in it. God wishes to be solicited. He is not weary of hearing us. The treasure of His graces is infinite. We can do nothing more pleasing to him than to beg incessantly that He bestow them upon us.  -- St. John Baptist de la Salle

Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself. - St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

I do not tell you to pray in my way, but in that of God. Leave your soul at liberty to receive the divine impressions according to God's pleasure. We should pray according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit. - St. Paul of the Cross

Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer. For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it; for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us.  -St. John Chrysostom

But let our speech and petition when we pray be under discipline, observing quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in God's sight. We must please the divine eyes both with the habit of body and with the measure of voice. - St. Cyprian of Carthage

If God grants you the gift of prayer, be faithful to it; take care, however, that you do not become slothful in the practice of virtues and the imitation of Jesus. - St. Paul of the Cross

"Thou hast given gladness to my heart," wrote the psalmist (Ps. 4:7); and the Lord Himself said that "the kingdom of heaven is within you. "(cf. Luke 17:21)

Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray. - St. Louis Marie de Montfort

. . . The crown of every good endeavor and the highest of achievements is diligence in prayer. Through it God guiding us and lending a helping hand, we come to acquire the other virtues . . . as the work of prayer is greater than other work, so it demands greater effort and attention from the person ardently devoted to it, lest without him being aware the devil deprives him of it. The greater the good a person has in his care, the greater the attacks the devil launches on him; hence he must keep strict watch, so that fruits of love and humility, simplicity and goodness - and, along with them, fruits of discrimination - may grow daily from the constancy of his prayer. These will make evident his progress and increase in holiness, thus encouraging others to make similar efforts. - St. Symeon Metaphrastis

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