Quotes by Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon

“I have found it easy to obtain the presence of God. He desires to be more present to us than we desire to seek Him. He desires to give Himself to us far more readily than we desire to receive Him. We only need to know how to seek God, and this is easier and more natural than breathing.””

“Oh, my God, if the value of prayer were but known, the great advantage which accrues to the soul from conversing with Thee, and what consequence it is of to salvation, everyone would be assiduous in it. It is a stronghold into which the enemy cannot enter. He may attack it, besiege it, make a noise about its walls; but while we are faithful and hold our station, he cannot hurt us.””

“This spirit gradually decayed, not being nourished by prayer. I became cold toward God.””

“Prayer is nothing else but the application of the heart to God, and the interior exercise of love.””

“God gives us the cross, and then the cross gives us God.””

“All consolation that does not come from God is but desolation; when the soul has learned to receive no comfort but in God only, it has passed beyond the reach of desolation.””

“The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of, and not of reasonings which are the fruits of study, or exercise of the imagination, which, in filling the mind with wandering objects, rarely settle it; instead of warming the heart with love to God, they leave it cold and languishing. Let the poor come, let the ignorant and carnal come; let the children without reason or knowledge come, let the dull or hard hearts which can retain nothing come to the practice of prayer and they shall become wise.””

“It is a small matter, say they; true, but it is of amazing consequence to you; it is a matter that you love well enough to refuse to give it up to God; a matter which you sneer at in words, that you may have a pretence to retain it; a small matter, but one that you withhold from your Maker, and which will prove your ruin.””

“the direct and principal exercise should be the sense of the presence of God, we must most faithfully recall the senses when they wander.””

“There are two means by which we may be led into the higher forms of prayer. One is Meditation, the other is Meditative Reading.””

“This prayer is not mental, but of the heart. It is not a prayer of thought alone, because the mind of man is so limited, that while it is occupied with one thing it cannot be thinking of another. But it is the PRAYER OF THE HEART, which cannot be interrupted by the occupations of the mind. Nothing can interrupt the prayer of the heart but unruly affections; and when once we have tasted of the love of God, it is impossible to find our delight in anything but Himself.””

“To have time for it, I left off prayer which was to me the first inlet of evils.””

“O Divine Shepherd! Thou feedest Thy sheep with Thine own hand, and Thou art their food from day to day.””