Prayer Is the Channel to God
Teresa of Avila
Today's Devotional
Prayer is the only channel through which God’s great graces and favors may flow into the soul; and if this be once closed, I know no other way He can communicate them. —St. Teresa.
Gracious Father, we earnestly implore the gift of the Spirit, that he may dwell in our hearts, and incline us to think and to do such things as please thee. Take from us all ignorance and hardness of heart and enable us to receive with meekness thy Word, which is able to save our souls. We pray for the hearing ear and the understanding heart of thy children, and for the teaching of thy Spirit, who alone can guide us into all truth, and enable us to know the things which have been given to us by God.— Edward Garbett
About the author and the source
The opening quote, encouraging a life of prayer, is from the famous Carmelite nun, Teresa of Avila (1515–1582). This is followed by an excerpt for Week Fifteen, Thursday, Evening, from Edward Garbett’s Family Prayer Book. The Rev. Edward Garbett and Rev. Samuel Martin were ministers in the Church of England who compiled prayers from about two hundred Church of England religious leaders. They arranged these by week and weekday for a full year’s cycle.
St. Teresa of Avila. “April 14.” Thoughts and Counsels of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, by various, collected by Rev. Bonaventure Hammer, O.F.M.
The Family Prayer Book, or, Morning and Evening Prayers for Every Day in the Year, edited by Edward Garbett and Samuel Martin. London: Cassell, Peter, and Galpin, 1864.