Meditation or mental prayer may be defined as the silent application and elevation of our heart and mind to God to offer Him praise and homage, and to promote His glory by our advancement in virtue…”True prayer,” says St. Gregory, “is not in the sound of the voice, but in the desire of the heart; not our words but our desire to give power to our cries in God’s hearing.” In mental prayer, along with the elevation of the heart must go the elevation of the mind and these must produce acts of the will if mental prayer is to be fruitful. Father Charles Hugo Doyle