GroshLink

As you may remember, C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters has been on my mind for quite some time (The Broken Heart, Demons on the web, Halloween/Harvest Party?, Temptations come and go).  Currently, I'm in the process of writing a book review.  Below's a quote on prayer which came to my attention and I couldn't shake it.  So I pass it along to you.  More quotes coming.  

The best thing, where it is possible, is to keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether. ... If this fails, you must fall back on a subler misdirection of his intention. ... Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. ... Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feelings and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment.  

But of course the Enemy will not meantime be idle.  Whenever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action.  He is cynically indifferent to the dignity to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees He pours out self knowledge in a quite shameless fashion. ... In avoiding this situation – this real nakedness of the soul in prayer – you will be helped by the fact that the humans themselves do not desire it as much as they suppose. There’s such a thing as getting more than they bargained for! (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, NY:  New York,  Touchstone, 1996, 1961 original edition, Letter IV, p.30)