This little book of meditations is but one more of very many. Our minds are all different, our method of prayer is different in every case. On this account it partly is that no prayer-book, still more no single collection of meditations, can hope to satisfy all alike. Nor can it even hope to satisfy any single soul, if that soul expects to find in it what prayer alone can give. All it can hope to do is to suggest such matter as may contain substance, such, too, as may help the soul of prayer in its own way to raise its mind and heart to God."
Such, then, is the aim of these meditations. The writer trusts that none of the points are mere words; certainly, he thinks, none are merely futile. He has relied upon his own judgment in the matter of selection and expression, feeling that so alone could he hope to give the meditations the vitality that is needed; at the same time he has not scrupled to make use of wiser heads and holier hearts than his own in the choice of his material. Particularly will this be found to be the case by those who are well acquainted with the works of Father Coleridge, SJ. It has often been said that some kind of selection from his many volumes is much to be desired; the present meditations at times run parallel with Father Coleridge's chapters, at times quote his actual words. Where this has been done, acknowledgment has been made by marks of quotation.
We would ask those who are kind enough to give this little book a place upon their prie-dieu, that they would use it in the spirit in which it has been written. The thoughts contained are necessarily brief, but they are thoughts which may easily be developed. They appeal to the heart rather than to the mind; as such, then, let them be taken. In other words let them not be tested by reading only; let them also be allowed to grow upon the mind and heart. Such an appeal seems necessary; for the writing of another book of meditations, after so many that haye been tried and found wanting, must almost appear an impertinence, and must at best be always an anxious thing.
- from The Prince of Peace: Meditations, by Archbishop Alban Goodier, SJ. It has the Nihil Obstat of F. Thome Bergh, O.S.B., Censor Deputatus, and the Imprimatur of Canon Edmund Surmont, Vicar General, Diocese of Westminster, England, 16 November 1915