r_." The author of the _Imitation of Christ_
wrote, "For I confess truly that I am accustomed to be very much
distracted. For oftentimes I am not there where I am bodily standing or
sitting, but am rather there where my thoughts carry me" (Bk. iii. c.
48). The same writer wrote, "And I, a wretch and the vilest of men.... I
can hardly spend one half hour as I ought." St. Teresa wrote, "I am not
less distracted than you are during Office, and try to think that it
arises from weakness of head. Do not fear to think so, too. Does not our
Lord know, that when we perform this duty we would wish to do it with
the greatest possible attention?"

After reading these words we can understand how prayer offered up with
involuntary distractions is true, holy prayer. St. Thomas tells us
"_Dicendum quod in spiritu et veritate orat, qui ex instinctu spiritus
ad orandum accedit, etiamsi ex aliqua infirmitate mens postmodum
evagetur.... Evagatio vero mentis quae fit praeter propositum orationis
fructum non tollat_" (2.2. q. 83, a. 13).

Nevertheless, every effort should be made to avoid and to banish
distractions. The ways of doing this are given in all treatises on
prayer. Every priest knows them well. There are negative means and
positive means. The negative means consist in withdrawing the senses and
the powers of the soul from everything disturbing the soul's converse
with God; in guarding against any too absorbing interest in worldly
affairs, so that the mind is unmanageable and cannot be fixed on sacred
things. St. Francis of Assisi, working at a piece of furniture before
saying Terce, was, during the saying of that hour disturbed by the
thought of his manual work. When he re-entered his cell he took the bit
of work and threw it in the fire saying, "I wish to sacrifice to the
Lord the thing which hindered my prayer to Him."

The positive means of avoiding and of banishing distractions are given
above; they are to read slowly, to read every word, to read in a
becoming position, to observe choir directions, to give ample time to
each Hour. Another rule given by writers on the pious recitation of the
Office, is to pause at certain places in the psalms to renew attention
and elicit affections. Some authors recommend such pauses at the end of
the invitatory, at the end of each hymn, or after each _Gloria_. "Study
well the _Gloria Patri_," said St. Francis of Assisi, "for in it you
find the substance of the scriptures."

V. To apply th