There is a clear space within the heart, an inner altar where you may make a prayer and set an intention. But you must know that to set an intention is not like setting a goal. To set an intention is to find that still, clear, quiet place within the heart and leave it there while you go about the business of life, taking actions that present themselves as opportunities so as to make good on your prayer. It is the setting of your intention and the leaving of your petition in that clear inner space that allows prayer to flow to you and through you into the world.
When people bring me flowers and gifts, when they leave rosaries or garlands around my neck at a shrine, this is what they are doing. To enter a shrine is to meet Me at the place where your heart and My heart overlap. But the real place of meeting is the heart, and it goes with you everywhere that you go, just as I accompany you every place through every moment of life.
Without that still, clear, quiet place to set your intention, it is difficult to do the work of prayer. Because then the prayer becomes work—a burden you must carry or an obligation you must fulfill. You learn to watch your petition to see if your prayer is being granted. But the intention you set in your heart with confidence becomes invisible and fixed, secure and imperturbable. When a prayer is carried within you in this way, it is just a matter of time before it is fulfilled. The world has no choice but to reorganize itself around that still, clear, quiet space. It has no choice but to listen to your prayer.
Photo at the Shrine to Our Lady of Woodstock on June 15, 2026