His Silent Voice

"An interior soul gradually arrives at the point where its whole life - prayer as well as activities - is under the direction of the Holy Spirit...Sometimes...we try to correct our faults and practice the virtues with the intention of pleasing God, while remaining, as it were, aloof from Him. We labor alone, almost forgetting that there is Someone within us who cannot only help us, but can do the work better than we can. Our activity resembles that of a sailor who is so busy rowing that he pays no attention to the wind, and thus receives no help from it. Certainly personal efforts are not to be neglected, but they should be expended in a more interior manner, that is in a theological way, depending more upon God and the action of the Holy Spirit. Rather than aim directly at correcting a fault or acquiring a virtue, it would be much more profitable for us to maintain a continual dependence on the interior Teacher, and to act only after listening to His intimate, silent voice. In short, it is a question of acting always in conformity with the interior movement of grace, with the inspirations of the Holy Spirit; thus we transfer the reins of our interior life from our hands to His, entrusting it completely to His direction."
-- from Divine Intimacy, #199 (p. 593-4)