To give oneself to God one must leave one's own self behind. Love is ecstatic by nature: in loving strongly, one lives in the other more than in oneself. But how could we practice that ecstatic dimension of love in our prayer, even to a small degree, if for the rest of the day we seek ourselves? If we are too attached to material things, our comfort and our vanity? If we cannot bear the slightest setback how can we live in God if we cannot forget ourselves for the sake of our brothers and sisters?
JACQUES PHILIPPE Time For God, Ch. 1
