Giving Retreat and Recollection

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    "Recollection is absolutely necessary. The devil will try to preoccupy us with external things - even good and excellent ones - in order to draw us away when our soul is taken up with God. Satan does not want to lose us. Like a kidnapper who draws a person out of her house, away from the presence of her mother, to the countryside to make her his slave, the devil tries to take us out of ourselves, away from the presence of our Lord, in order to daze us and remove us from our Center. Then our heart will dry up, and he will be able to tempt us. To avoid this disaster, we must remain recollected, in the presence of God. After a retreat, this is the only thing to do. Stay in the presence of God, by recalling the good feelings, and all that was said. Remain in thanksgiving, in a good direction, in humility or in some other grace..."

An excerpt from the conference of St. Peter Julian Eymard to the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, Paris, August 3, 1859