To Know is to Love. To Love is to Follow. But Prayer above All

 The soul . . . lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor of God and the salvation of souls begins by exercising herself . . . in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of self-knowledge in order to know better the goodness of God towards her. This she does because knowledge must precede love. (A)nd only when she has attained love can she strive to follow (the truth) and clothe herself with (it). But in no way does the creature receive such a taste of the truth or so brilliant a light therefrom as by means of humble and continuous prayer . . . 

-St. Catherine of Siena

Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena (p. 1)

Pope St. Pius V Contemplates the Cross

 . . . Pope Pius tells us that he faced the difficulties of his world through prayer . . . It was prayer, he taught, that conquered the sufferings of this vale of tears. Indeed so confident was he in the power of prayer that after the Battle of Lepanto, when the vastly outnumbered Catholic fleet overcame invading Turkish forces, Pius proclaimed that the miraculous victory belonged to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all those who had joined him in unceasingly praying the rosary for victory as the battle ensued.

-Brother Jordan Scott, O.P.

"Great Dominicans: St. Pope Pius V"

DogzGodz: The Blog of the Dominican student brothers (Blackfriars, Oxford)

John 14:2-6

"In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may also be. Where I am going you know the way."

Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, "I am the Way and Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."