“Prayer changes from entreaty to thanksgiving, and meditation on the Divine Truths of faith fills the heart with a sense of jubilation and unimpeachable hope. This hope is a foretaste of future blessings, of which the Soul even now receives direct experience, and so it comes to know in part the surpassing richness of God’s bounty, in accordance with the Psalmist’s words, ‘Taste and know that the Lord is bountiful’ (Ps. 34:8). For He is the jubilation of the righteous, the joy of the upright, the gladness of the humble, and the solace of those who grieve because of Him.”

+

“When the Jesus Prayer is absent, all manner of harmful things assail us, leaving no room for anything good in the Soul. But when our Lord is present in the Prayer, everything alien is banished.”