Be guided by the hidden light of the Holy Ghost

"We have to remind ourselves, over and over again, that prayer is not an isolated thing, at thing to be sought by itself, a kind of pleasurable accomplishment like music, pr painting or literature, or anything of that kind. It is not something in which we lose ourselves for our own pleasure, though from the way most of us behave when we temporarily lose the pleasure, one might almost be tempted to think that we were no more than amateurs, enjoying and playing with the beauty of an art for the sake of the beauty and the happiness it gives, but without any real knowledge of it, without any genuine proficiency in it, without depth or meaning or understanding.

To pray means to be brought within the life of Christ: to suffer, to love, to win souls with Him. It means to be enmeshed for ever in the will of the Father, to be guided by the hidden light of the Holy Ghost. The suffering of Christ is a very real suffering; the will of God often runs counter to our own; and to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit will often mean to set aside all selfish considerations for the sake of an eternal principle and a divine charity."

-- The Nun's Answer by A Carmelite Nun