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For progress in prayer, and union with God, we ought to trust God, and be willing to be converted, again. People who don't want God don't pray much, or well, even if they believe in God. They don't want God's light to shine into their souls, encouraging them to give up their bad habits, unloving attitudes, selfish plans or uncharitable schemes. It's as though they keep the 'door' of their souls almost shut; alas, they themselves shut out God's graces in this way.

When we pray with faith, in the name of Jesus, trusting in His merits and in the Father's goodness, our prayer of faith has a power greater than that of the greatest rocket. Our prayer pierces Heaven, and is granted, for Jesus' sake.

We pray 'in Christ' because His prayers are always heard. We are wise if we have faith in the power of prayer in Jesus' name. If we trust in Him, and in the merits of His Sacred Passion - and in the goodness of God our Father - we pray with confidence, certain that our prayers and intercession will reach Heaven. It is as if Jesus Christ is like Jacob's ladder: our 'Ladder' by which we can climb towards Heaven in prayer, even if we ourselves cannot yet enter.

If the evil one wishes to cause distress, he will attempt any number of ploys, whether spiritual assaults to cause fear, or false visions, or a flurry of images to annoy the soul during prayer, or new and vigorous temptations to sin, or other trials. Trust in God is essential, and holy water is very helpful, as is the Name of Jesus - and Our Lady's prayers.

Without trust in God, people turn away from Him, by a free choice. Millions of people have died with little faith or hope, and have left nothing good on earth. But the work of the Saints endures. Those self-centred people have had nowhere to go except on a single journey, chosen by them, away from God, to the depths of Hell. But the good that the Saints do lives after them, renews the Church, helps the needy, and changes attitudes across the world. The Gospel needs to be preached to the ends of the earth, to bring hope, and joy.

It is really true that God loves us. The message at Christmas is a personal invitation from Jesus Christ to each of us: to repent of sin, to believe that He has come down from Heaven, and to put our trust in Him. Then our lives will change! He gives us, through His Church, all that we need to become holy, to lead holy lives, and to reach Heaven - if we persevere.

Christ asks us to be bolder and braver, in direct proclamation of the Gospel message, that God loves us so much that He came from Heaven to live here as man, to save us from sin, and the fear of death. If we repent and trust in Him, we can be transformed, by the graces received in prayer, and through the Church. At present there is too much 'pre-evangelisation', which is not converting people, but causing some to think conversion is not important.

Christ's friends live as if within a bight cloud, of God's love. When we live in union with God in everyday life, nourished by the Sacraments, forgiven and in a state of grace, we do not need to see the path ahead, before we can love and serve God well. We don't need to picture the future. Even if we are uncertain of His plans for us, or unsure of our vocation, we should be confident that here, from moment to moment, we can delight Him by doing His Will, in our ordinary circumstances.

Especially if we are doing important work for Christ, the evil one is capable of hurling painful memories to our imagination, trying to stir up our minds in fruitless speculation, so that we will lose trust in Christ and become miserable or afraid - or full of self-pity, or anxiety. We must not give in, but should focus our minds, by God's grace, on all the good things for which we can be thankful to God.

As we pray in the name of Christ to God our Father, the most important thing about prayer is that we approach God with hearts open to His love, willing to learn from Him, and reverent, humble, contrite and grateful. Books can be useful, if they give us words in which to clothe our thoughts, for a sincere offering to God; but books are useless, if we read to God but do so without humility, without trust, or without willingness to love, forgive and serve our neighbour.

It is normal for grieving parents to want special memorials for their departed child; but they must not fear that the child will be forgotten if they do not arrange a new trust or a charity to perpetuate the child's name. God never forgets his children - whatever age they were, however they died, and whether or not people on earth find that memories fade, to their surprise or embarrassment.

Those priests who have grievously sinned, or have become dispirited and somewhat hopeless, are not abandoned by Christ. Some might be in danger of falling into Hell, in the depths of the Abyss; but Christ is reaching out to them. If they reach up to Him in repentance and trust, before they die, they can find salvation and even joy and peace of soul.

A little child can scream for attention, and dispute every instruction from his mother, so ending up alone and miserable - or he can co-operate, and experience her companionship, her wise words, and her consolations; and so it is in the Church. A Catholic can disbelieve parts of the Faith, grumble about discipline, speak with hostility about the Pope, and become a slave to his own opinions, or he can choose to co-operate with God and the Church, and in that trust and obedience find not slavery but freedom, and joy, and peace of soul, and hope.

It is true that many priests deserve more rest; however, some priests are as if hiding away, uncommunicative, loathing ordinary life and interaction. Whether this is because of sin or hopelessness, there is no way to find change, and lasting joy, except through a renewal of their dedication to Christ, Who called them to the Priesthood. With sincere trust in Him, they can fulfil their basic duties and persevere in prayer.

There is no easy way out of trouble. If a priest is very sinful, or dispirited and hopeless, and wants to escape from his misery, the only sensible way is by turning to Christ, beginning again to trust in Him, to repent, to pray, and to receive His gifts, for the service of God and neighbour, just as the only sensible way for a man in prison to act is to act well, until the door opens to freedom rather that try to dig a tunnel with bare hands through a brick wall.

Christ asks us to share the truth with hesitant Catholics, that the surest way to a holy life, and a confident but holy journey to Heaven, is to make a good Confession; then, freed from all sin, and trusting in Christ, in prayer, and guided by the teachings of His Church, the Way ahead becomes clear.

There are worse tragedies than illness. There was once an advert that portrayed the pain of a family who lost a beloved member through sudden death. How terrible it is, if a member is lost forever, through not having prepared for death by repentance, holy living, prayer, and trust in God. Some people rule themselves out of Heaven by their sins or disbelief.

Christ invites each priest to renew his trust in Him. Even when a priest approaches the altar with heavy footsteps and a leaden heart, and feels so lacking in love or fervour that it's as if he is offering the Holy Sacrifice in a frozen waste, surrounded by snow drifts and icy winds, Christ never fails to come to the altar at the Consecration, as if leaning down from the Cross to say to the priest: Yes, I am here! I love you. You are doing My work, offering My Sacrifice. Persevere, and you will become joyful.

Like a mountaineer in a dangerous place, someone who is trying to escape from a sinful way of life needs the intercessions of other people. He also needs trust in God's power, and the virtue of hope, by which he will persevere in the belief that God can change him, save him, make him holy and happy, and bring him in the end to Heaven.

When a person has come close to spiritual disaster, and has lived as if in an icy wilderness of isolation, cold, pain and hardship, it can seem impossible to believe that another 'world' exists, of joy, peace, warmth and fruitfulness. With faith in God's love, trust in His power, and prayer, we can allow God to change our inner landscape from cold to warm, and change even the pattern of our ordinary days.