In the letter to Proba St Augustine gives us several guidelines in regards to prayer. He writes that our desire for God is important for the life of our prayer, and he believes that our desire must be insistent:
"Therefore we pray always with insistent desire, in that same faith and hope and charity."
And yet, he warns that our prayer must not come solely when we desire, but rather we must have a fixed schedule:
"But, we also pray to God in words at certain fixed hours and times"
The reason he gives us is, "so that we may urge ourselves on and take note with ourselves how much progress we have made in this desire, and may rouse ourselves more earnestly to increase it."
He adds to the explanation: "because that desire [for union with God] grows somewhat lukewarm by reason of our cares and preoccupation with other things, we call our mind back to the duty of praying at fixed hours. In this way, we urge ourselves in the words of our prayer to press forward to what we desire; otherwise, after our desire has begun to grow lukewarm, it then becomes entirely cold, and is completely extinguished, unless it is frequently rekindled."
And as our desire is enkindled by our fixed prayer we come to pray
"even in the necessary works and obligations."
Posted by Carlos J. Medina
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