Prayer happens within our hearts. Throughout Sacred Scripture, the “heart” is frequently referenced as the place
of encounter with the Lord. This is not our physical heart, but the “heart” is a representation of the “place of
choice,” our center, and the deepest reality of who we are. It is within our hearts that we choose life or death.
St. Thomas Aquinas referred to this part of the person—the heart—as “the will” and recognized our will as the
place in which we choose to love.

This intimate connection between the heart and love means that to purify the heart is to purify what we love.
When we become “pure of heart,” our loves are well-ordered; we love God above all things, and, thus, we deepen
our relationship with God. All the knowledge in the world will not lead to intimacy with Jesus if we do not also
purify our hearts.

As we grow, we experience interior movements of the heart. God speaks to us through these interior movements,
and, by becoming attentive to these movements, we can begin to discern spiritual realities in our lives. There
are two significant movements in our spiritual life: spiritual consolation and spiritual desolation. These we must
understand so that we can properly respond to each movement. To respond requires a healing of our “affect,” or
the emotional movements of our hearts, so we can properly understand how God is speaking to us, free of the
disordered lenses we often have in our affective movements. These lenses focus on what others think of us, as
well as carry unforgiveness or lie about who we are. We become free of these disordered lenses through prayer,
which focuses our hearts on what is true, good, and beautiful while meditating on the Lord.