Mental Prayer

"Now for a man in the active life to give up his meditation is tantamount to throwing down his arms at the feet of the enemy. 'Short of a miracle,' says St. Alphonsus, 'a man who does not practice mental prayer will end up in mortal sin.' And St. Vincent de Paul tells us: 'A man without mental prayer is not good for anything; he cannot even renounce the slightest thing.'

Some authors quote St. Teresa as having said: 'Without mental prayer a person soon becomes either a brute or a devil. If you do not practice mental prayer, you don't need any devil to throw you into hell, you throw yourself in there of your own accord. On the contrary, give me the greatest of all sinners; if he practices mental prayer, be it only for fifteen minutes every day, he will be converted. If he perseveres, his eternal salvation is assured.'"

--from The Soul of the Apostolate, p. 82.