The Secret Of My Power

When I stand up to talk, people listen to me; they will follow what I have to say.  Is it any power of mine? Of course not. St. Paul says: 'What have you that you have not received and you who have received, why do you glory as if you had not?' But the secret of my power is that I have never in fifty-five years missed spending an hour in the presence of our Lord in the blessed sacrament.  That's where the power comes from.  That's where sermons are born.  That's where every good thought is conceived.        I don't mean to say that these hours have always been good.  I've had to walk up and down the church to stay awake.  I once went into St. Roch's Church in Paris to pray an hour, when I only had two hours in Paris between trains on my way to Lourdes.  There were only about five days a year that I can sleep in the daytime, and this was one.  I sat down at two o'clock, and I slept perfectly until three.  When I awoke I said to the good Lord, 'Did I make a holy hour?' And my angel said, 'Yes that's the way the apostles prayed the first one.