QUOTE : Loving intimacy with God is impossible if the conscience is stained with a deliberate habit of sin, for that is a direct denial of love of God and a definite withdrawal of part of our heart and our life from Him. Even an habitual infringement of a rule, in which we deliberately persist after we have adverted to it, makes it impossible for us to try to look God in the face, so to speak, to go into His presence with that readiness of heart for His service, which is the secret of all true devotion and prayer.