The author has written the following about this book: During the past forty years, Christ has been teaching me, usually during prayer, about Himself, and about the spiritual life. At first, the teachings were infrequent and puzzling, and when I plucked up courage to record them, that "First Version" was hesitantly-written and poorly-arranged. Not until 1995 did I write a "Second Version" - and then a third - which clarified not only the content of the "teachings" but also the way in which I was taught. In recent years, I've also been busy painting the images with which Christ has illustrated certain of His parables and explanations. The greatest of Christ's 'teachings-in-prayer' have been implanted within my soul in a way which is both wordless and imageless; and so I'll never be able to describe them adequately. But Christ has gone to great lengths to explain to me that the shorter and simpler 'teachings' are to be recorded and offered to some of the people I meet. He wants to encourage His people to be ever more devoted to Him and to remain strong in faith, obedient to His holy Church. So that is why I have printed, in the past two years, four volumes of teachings, entitled: "Instructions from Christ"' and that is why I have been speaking more boldly about Christ's work in my life, whilst giving books to anyone who wishes to receive them. This new book has also been compiled in obedience to Christ, Who has invited me to arrange in one volume those of His 'teachings-in-prayer' which are specifically about the ministerial priesthood of the Catholic Church, or are relevant to it - or which could be useful for anyone who is struggling to be faithful to Christ amidst numerous distractions or temptations. It still astonishes me that Our Lord should have given me this work to do. I'm still astonished and delighted, daily, thinking about all the gifts and graces to be found in the Catholic Church, which I entered as an awed and grateful convert thirty years ago. But when I entered, and began to make even greater efforts to meet God in prayer, I had no desire for novelty, nor any understanding of how He can teach people in prayer in a swift and lavish infusion of knowledge; nor did I understand what I had heard in the Gospel about Christ leading us to the Father; so that is why I took almost no notice of the earliest 'teachings' - although I never forgot them; rather, I continued with my fervent efforts to find out more about the Catholic Faith through the normal channels, to the degree that is possible for any busy wife and mother. So through all the early years when God was persistently teaching me in the silence of prayer, I was content with the authoritative teachings of the Church, on every subject; I sought advice from reputable, wise and saintly authors, and gratefully absorbed the truths which come to us through the prayers of the Liturgy, the Scripture readings and the homilies. I was first aware of 'being taught' when I was fourteen years old. There were two long periods of my life when such teachings ceased, as part of my spiritual training; but this way of learning spiritual truths in prayer eventually became a part of my life of prayer: first, at intervals of several weeks or days, and now , daily. When I was being first taught by God in prayer I had no idea of the mission for which He was preparing me; whereas now I know that He wishes to provide encouragement, through this work, to members of the Catholic Church in an era when the Faith is under attack not only from outside but from within, and in a time when the concepts of duty and obedience are widely derided. There's no question of my thinking that I'm fit to stand up to speak about such virtues; but it's part of Christ's plan that He has chosen and trained a weak person to do this work precisely in order to give hope to other weak persons - if they can be persuaded to turn to Christ in every difficulty, amidst all their sins and failings, and to believe that Christ can be their strength, joy and holiness. I ask the reader to believe that - despite the unexpected 'teachings' which for many years I ignored - my routine prayers consist of the sort of Catholic devotions which I describe in various writings. Like many other people, I pray the "morning offering", centred on the Holy Mass, with acts of faith, hope and charity, and with devotions to Our Blessed Lady and to all the Angels and Saints, as well as Scripture-meditation. My prayer-life has always been very ordinary, based upon vocal prayers and attendance at Holy Mass, whether or not 'extraordinary' experiences have also been given to me - for God's own purposes. It is true that prayer has become altogether more simplified and joyful in recent times, as I have learned to follow God more swiftly and frequently into the prayer of contemplation; yet I hope that I shall never think of discarding the simple prayers which, at different times of the day or the week, are so expressive and fruitful. What a wonderful treasury we have in our Catholic prayers: so many long-cherished, safe, good and useful methods of expressing our love for God and our sorrow for sin. It was in 1990, or thereabouts, that I first went to my parish priest - now my former parish priest, and recently deceased - to ask his opinion about my being 'taught' in prayer. I had been astonished, as I said, to find that God was teaching Me about Himself, although I had hoped for nothing more than to be able to keep on praying regularly, in the usual ways, and to keep on trying - despite my failures - to love God and my neighbour. But if God Wills to teach me in this way, I have found, even today, nothing but my ill-will or lack of love can stop Him; and when we have tried to keep to the usual paths in prayer, but have been thwarted, and are puzzled by our experiences, we ought to turn, I know, to our advisors in the Catholic Church. Christ guides it now as surely as in every century, through the Pope and the other Catholic Bishops, and through their priest-representatives who live amongst us, and who are qualified to give us either warning or encouragement, not only about prayer but about doctrine; so that is why, several years ago, I sought advice about the "Teachings-in-prayer", and was reassured. Only then did I pluck up courage to do more than record the bare outlines of the teachings in a little notebook. I began to write them out at length on numbered sheets of A4 paper - as what was 'The First Version'. Since I would never wish to write or print anything which is contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, I have also sought advice about more recent work; and now that I've been reassured that it contains nothing unorthodox I've compiled a number of booklets, which contain selections of 'teachings'. For the past few years I've been offering these to friends and acquaintances. However, recent volumes have been compiled solely because - on November 3rd 1995 - Christ invited me to re-write His 'teachings' in a different manner. My new task, I learned, was to list most of His plain instructions about what I must do if I sincerely wish to please Him and to become holy; and Christ invited me to write "in the first person", so that others can receive His teachings in the sort of direct and simple way which it has been my privilege to experience. It seems to me as though these teachings have been "squeezed" by Christ through the substance of my daily life as water is squeezed through a sponge. Without the pressure of His urgings towards greater fervour and self-surrender, and without my at times agonised consent, the 'water' of His instruction about our spiritual journey could not have 'poured out' for so many years, through prayer, into my daily life and so into my notebooks. I mention this because Christ has been producing - through my daily life and work - a sort of catechism of the spiritual life. Of course, we know that He has already given us all that we need for salvation; but it is His wish that we be reminded of various truths about prayer, sacrifice and penance, for example. He desires, also, to remind us of His tremendous Love for us. He wants to offer a reminder - from within my life: the life of someone fearful and sinful, whose days have been cluttered with problems and anxieties - that His is a constant and forgiving Love. He admires even our weak faith and our pitiful efforts to love and serve Him and our neighbour. Stage by stage, as this work has progressed, Christ has been revealing to me something more of His plan. Many people will be helped by these 'teachings' - Christ has shown me - and others will shun them. My only concern, He says, is to produce them, obedient to Him, and to leave the results in His hands. But those who are glad to read them can be assured that everything within these pages was taught to me - whether implicitly or explicitly - by our infinitely-loving God, usually during prayer. Throughout His instructions, Christ has scattered at least as many compliments as reprimands; He has been encouraging me just as any good teacher encourages a child. I have omitted some of the compliments; I was tempted to omit even more, and also to omit my own name from the text, but I am loathe to remove this evidence of Christ's kindness. It is so important that people believe in His Love as well as in His scorching purity and His infinite majesty; and we are reminded of this marvellous Love in Holy Scripture, where God says: 'I have called you by your name; you are Mine!' Christ's Love for each one of us is personal and tender - as I know by experience as well as by faith. I ought to add that when Christ first began to offer me His 'teachings', He was addressing them - for His own good reasons - to someone who was already baptised. He Himself taught me the importance of repentance, and so I made great efforts to serve Him. I became a Catholic, as I said; and - despite my failures - I kept turning to Him in regular prayer. As the teachings continued, He was building, therefore, on a foundation which He Himself had placed within my soul; and that 'foundation' is His Divine Life, in me; such is His generosity. On that foundation He has established and developed, in my everyday life, the contemplation which is the "SPIRITUAL WORK" of the title of the Third Volume of these 'Teachings in prayer'; and His other great gift to me at this stage of my life has been to let me see all the members of my immediate family join me at last in the Catholic Church, in full communion, and to have given us the privilege of a son being ordained to the Priesthood; and I ask the reader, please, to pray for us all, that we remain faithful, just as I pray daily for the readers.