With the help of Pierre Goursat, founder of the Emmanuel Community, let us move forward together during this Lenten Season
… Here and there Pierre gave a few practical tips to help people to grow in faithfulness: Pierre also suggested another simple little method. You take a pencil and you note down each week (in a notebook) the time when you were really with Jesus. When you open your book, you’re horrified and you say: “I only prayed once or twice!” While in your little mind you were convinced you had prayed nearly every day. And you realize that that’s far from the truth. Pierre called this notebook a “sanctification notebook”. It reminds you a bit that you are committed to a time of prayer! “Well Lord, I have not done very much, and then I cut things a bit short there too. And then on the third day I was busy with a very important charity thing, I wasn’t able to pray either.” You see! So, in conclusion, after a week you will say: “I ought to pray every day and I only prayed twice, 2 or 3 times!” And it’s fantastic, when you see this, you say: “But it’s odd, I thought I had prayed every day!” In was this way, thanks to this little notebook, that a young girl realised with amazement that every day she cut short by a few minutes the time of prayer that she had set. This was the opportunity for a new step in her relationship with the Lord, to whom she wished to consecrate her life. In conclusion, we have to persevere, so, we always have to be practical! (One can also write in this “sanctification notebook”, if necessary, the time one spends sleeping, a practical point for vigilance or conversion, etc., or even a human quality which one decides to Christianise (live with the Lord). It is up to everyone to make it something living and useful!)
Excerpts from: 
Martine Catta “Words of Pierre Goursat” p 120; 121
