Perseverance in Prayer

"Unless the seed is sown the ears of wheat do not grow; if we do not ask, we shall not receive the graces we require. In so far as we intensify our demands, we identify our will with that of God. It is He who truly knows the depths of our need, of our utter poverty. At times the makes us wait so that we might be better disposed, so that we will desire those graces more earnestly and fervently. On other occasions He rectifies our petition and grants us what we really need. And yet there are times when He does not grant us what we are asking for, because, perhaps without realising it, we are actually asking for comething that is harmful, something that has presented itself to our will under the appearance of some desireable good."
- Fr. Fernandez, In Conversation With God, Vol. 3, p. 262