Father was leaving the home for some hours, and the fire had just been started. It had caught and was burning. Someone suggested adding an extra log to the fire before Father left. With some hesitation Gabriel added another log. However, he placed it a bit too soon, and instead of intensifying the fire, it had the opposite effect. It smothered the fire, and for a time it was unclear if the fire would go out altogether or catch.

One can see such things with souls that have found Our Lord after a long time of distance. The soul may jump into many efforts to evangelize, and those efforts may grow to such an extent that one of two things could happen. One outcome may be that the soul finds a healthy balance between duties, time in prayer, and evangelization. Another outcome finds the soul out of balance. The soul buries itself with efforts to evangelize other souls at the expense of its own relationship with God. In an effort to win a great many souls for Our Lord, the one working loses his or her anchor, which is prayer. In this the soul becomes lost. The work which began for Our Lord has become the work of the soul. Without prayer the control of the work shifts to being guided by the soul instead of a compass of Our Lord through prayer. Our Lord wants to have the love of many souls, but He does not want to lose our love in the process. If this begins to happen, the soul can draw away and tend his fire until the fire is strong. Then the soul can again set to work but always with an eye that prayer is not overlooked so as to ensure that the fire always remains burning.

Goal: A soul can become smothered with the active life if silent prayer is neglected.

Sit quietly for five minutes, and imagine yourself just being at the foot of the Cross to silently show your love to Jesus.