Prayer Has Nothing to Do With the Animal Part of Us

I found this quotation from Archbishop Fulton Sheen on The Catholic Spitfire Grill.

We said prayer is the lifting of the heart and minid to God. Notice we said noting so much about emotions. Why not? Because prayer really does not have very much to do with sensations or emotions or feeling. It's not a feeling in the stomach. Just as it is not a pain in the stomach. It is not a capricious feeling, something that makes us purr on the inside. It has nothing to do with the animal part of us. It is not in the glands. It is in the intellect. It is in the will. It is in the heart. As embracing a love of Truth which belongs to the intellect and also a resolve and a determination to grow in love which is one of the acts of will. We do not therefore pray because we feel like it. Sometimes our prayers are much better when we do not feel like praying. St. Francis de Sales said "An ounce of desolation is of greater worth a pound of consolation." Very often in prayer we do not have a sense of the presence of God. I say 'sense' referring it to the biological or emotional part of our lives Really we are very much like children that are carried in mother's arms. If we are carried in Our Lord's arms, we rarely see His Face. We know it is there. Prayer then is an intercourse between the created spirit and the uncreated spirit which is God. It is a communication, a conversation, an adoration, a penance, a happiness, a work, a rest, an asking, a submission. ~Archbishop Fulton Sheen