Some persons talk against what is called experience in religion. Do not join in with them. Enquire this of yourselves, and not seldom, if you find your affections drawing off from the world and its vanities (not to say from any sin and love of it) to Christ. Do you find in yourselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the flesh, and its works, and drawing up your minds to better, and heavenly things? If so, doubt not that it is the work of God the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in you, and give Him the glory of it. And as you prize communion with God, and value the teaching and comfort of the Holy Ghost, seek to be found daily in God's ways, in the highway of humble faith and obedient love, sitting much in spirit at the feet of Christ, and drinking in (so to speak) those sweet and sanctifying communications of His grace, which are at once an earnest of, and a preparation for, eternal life. Let us never think lightly of such experience as this in ourselves, nor be ashamed modestly to own it, nor offended with others, if reverently they speak of it. We find holy David saying - Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what great things He has done for my soul. There must be experience of the love of God, of the value of Christ, and all this to us, and of the sanctifying work of the Holy Comforter, in every earnest Christian, and there are occasions when it is not unbecoming, but fitting, to speak of it. To disregard, or deride this, is to insult God, and it is to grieve the Holy Spirit if we keep His work shut up in our hearts. We believe (writes Saint Paul), for which cause we speak also.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp