"The force of the human being is prayer. From your youth, familiarize yourself with prayer. To pray is to breathe alongside God. To pray is to give your life to God and to dedicate it to him. To pray is to place your trust in God.

"When you get ready for bed in the evening, join your hands, instill a deep silence in yourself, and ask God to come close by. Then tell him how you have passed your day, whether you have made it holy or spoiled it. Tell him if you have passed the day with love or with anger, with peace or with hatred, in doing good or in doing evil, in purity or in profanity. Then pray that God will make your soul holy and pure. Then be ashamed of the evil (which you have done), and be glad at the good (which you have done). Finally, before the eyes of God, name those who love you, thank God for giving you your father and your mother, for giving you the friends who love you, and pray to God to stay with all of them.

"If you have something which you do not wish to confide with anyone, trust that God sees all things and knows all things. Go to him; and, at night, when all is calm and asleep, pour out your troubled heart to him, and he will give you rest. My dear child . . . do not forget: it is through prayer that you will become strong."