Thursday 13 October 2016

577 Once, when my confessor told me to say “Glory be to the Father” as my penance,


it took me a very long time; and I began many times, but did not finish, because my spirit became united with God, and I could not stick to the prayer. Quite frequently, I am unwittingly enveloped by God‟s omnipotence and become entirely plunged in Him through love, and then I do not know what is going on around me. When I told my confessor that this short prayer often takes very much of my time and that sometimes I cannot even finish it, he told me to say it right away, there, at the confessional. However, my spirit became immersed in God and, in spite of my efforts, I could not think as I wished. And so the confessor said, “Please repeat after me.” (46) I repeated every word, but while I was pronouncing each word, my spirit would be steeped in the person I was naming.