Hajja Salesjana

later mess up, it is an act of charity and virtue. It is a meritorious act, a good work recognized by God. If, of course, that original intention is lacking, if we just pray because we are supposed to pray but we do not pray to be closer to God, then the prayer is not meritorious. The key is in our original intent and action, even if the fullness of the action is not perfect. Our minds wander because we are human. It is natural. “Even holy men,” St. Aquinas wrote, “sometimes suffer from a wandering of the mind when they pray.” How much more so will children (and tired mothers) succumb to the wandering of the mind. “The human mind is unable to remain aloft for long on account of the weakness of nature, because human weakness weighs down the soul to the level of inferior things: and hence it is that when, while praying, the mind ascends to God by contemplation, of a sudden it wanders off through weakness.” Photo by Ioann-Mark Kuznietsov - Unsplash.com 9 April-Ġunju 2024 hajja