One could say that prayer begins here in this responsiveness to the gaze of God. Although we must make many about faces day after day to meet his gaze and to flee the oblivion to which we are so prone, every step toward purity of thought, intention, heart, toward purity of the inner eye, leads us more surely to that sanctuary called memory, a sanctuary created in us by God precisely so that we could meet him there . . . What is it to remember God? To remember him is not simply a recollection of him in his past deeds, because those mercies shape us to this day. To remember him is to enter into his presence in the varied ways that he makes himself present within and among us. It is to know that forgetfulness of God is death: In death there is no remembrance of you (Psalm 6:5). It is to say to God what he says to us: I will never forget you (Isaiah 49:15).
– Sister Maureen McCabe, O.C.S.O.
