The Practice of the Presence of God

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Discover practical wisdom on overcoming wandering thoughts in prayer in this insightful chapter from "The Practice of the Presence of God." Learn how humility, gentle persistence, and a quiet mind can help you maintain focus and deepen your spiritual connection. 

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[00:00:01] Bryan Entzminger:

Eighth Letter concerning wandering thoughts in   prayer. You tell me nothing new. You are not the   only one who is troubled with wandering thoughts. Our mind is   extremely roving but as the will is the mistress of   all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to   God as their last end. When the mind,   for want of being sufficiently reduced by recollection, at our first   engaging in devotion, has contracted certain bad habits of   wandering and dissipation. They are difficult to overcome, and   commonly draw us, even against our wills, to the things of the earth.   I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults and to humble   ourselves before God. I do not advise you to use   multiplicity of words in prayer. Many words and long   discourses, often being the occasions of wandering.  

Hold yourself in prayer before God, like a dumb or paralytic beggar   at a rich man's gates. Let it be your business to keep your   mind in the presence of the Lord. If it sometimes wander   and withdraw itself from him, do not much disquiet   yourself for that. Trouble and disquiet serve rather   to distract the mind than to recollect it. The will   must bring it back in tranquillity. If you persevere in this manner,   God will have pity on you. One way to recollect the   mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in   tranquillity, is not to let it wander too far. At other times   you should keep it strictly in the presence of God, and being   accustomed to think of him often, you will find it easy to keep your   mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its   wanderings. I have told you already at large in my   former letters, that of the advantages we may draw from this   practice of the presence of God, let us set about it seriously, and   pray for one another, yours and the rest.