We should cleanse our interior house, empty it out, give more room to God in it, by increasing our life of penance. We ought also to seek God with more ardor in the practice of virtue, especially of a lively faith and generous love, and of a life of silence, recollection and prayer. The more our soul is emptied of profane things and becomes a holy sanctuary, the more will it attract the Divine Guest. Penance will suppress whatever repels infinite purity; the virtues will adorn in a worthy manner the temple of so lofty a Majesty ; the calm and peace of the sanctuary and the incense of prayer will invite God to honor us with His presence and with His intimate friendship. This beginning of a preparation, which leads the soul to the threshold of mystical contemplation, does not exceed the power of our own efforts aided by grace; perhaps God, some day, by putting us through special purifications, will deign to complete our preparation, and so open to us the gates of contemplation.  –‘The Ways of Mental Prayer’ written by Dom Vitalis Lehodey.