We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished,
but it is going on;
this is not the end,
but it is the road.
~ Martin Luther with thanks to Bob Hamlyn
I have quitted all forms of devotion and set prayers but those to which my state obliges me. And I make it my business only to persevere in the Holy Presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard to God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God, which often causes me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them and prevent their appearance to others.