When you undertake some special endeavor, look upon it as something secondary; and by entire surrender to God open yourself up to God’s grace, like a vessel laid out to receive it. Whoever finds grace finds it by means of faith and zeal, says St. Gregory of Sinai, and not by zeal alone. However painstaking our work, so long as we omit to surrender ourselves to God while performing it, we fail to attract God’s grace, and our efforts build up within us not so much a true spirit of grace but the spirit of a Pharisee. Grace is the soul of the struggle. Our efforts will be rightly directed so long as we preserve self-abasement, contrition, fear of God, devotion to him, and the realization of our dependence on divine help. If we are self-satisfied and contented with our efforts, it is a signt that they are not performed in the right way, or that we lack wisdom.

—The Art of Prayer

This week, as a follow-up to yesterday’s sermon, I will be posting some resources that pertain to our devotional life. May God bless them and help you find them edifying.