I don’t remember what book I was reading, but it was by Jacques (or Jacques and Raïssa) Maritain. In it was quoted Louis Lallemant SJ:

Without contemplation we will never advance far toward virtue… we will never break free of our weaknesses and our imperfections. We will always be attached to the earth, and will never raise ourselves much above the sentiments of nature. We will never be able to offer a perfect service to God. But with contemplation we will do more in a month, for ourselves and for others, than we would have been able to do without it in ten years. It produces… acts of sublime love for God such as one can hardly ever accomplish without this gift… and finally, it perfects faith and all the virtues.

I thought, “This must be what God wants for everyone. God wants contemplation for everyone.”

I think this was the point of the whole book I was reading. But the Louis Lallemant quote runs the point home.

I started this blog one year ago with this quote.  I stand by the choice. Why should anyone on the muddy highways of the road care about contemplation? What does contemplation matter? What is its use, so to speak? If Father Louis Lallemant’s answer and testimony is not convincing enough, then someone is not, at the moment, ready to be convinced. God wants “acts of sublime love” and he wants for us perfect faith and all the virtues”.