Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”2 But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart?3 He who humbles himself will be exalted;4 2613 humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we 2763 humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,”5 are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.

Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.

Before the time of prayer comes, the servant must be in a state of preparation and his attitude must be that which is essential for prayer, namely a state of reflection and recollection, free from wandering thoughts and consideration or remembrance of anything save God alone. Those who enter in this way upon prayer with heart intent only upon God, will proceed from prayer to prayer in that same state of recollection and will remain in that state after they have ceased to pray.

Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him.

Prayer is a conversation of the soul with God, in which people confess their mistakes, rectify themselves and give thanks for all good things which they receive every day.

When I pray, I'm not just telling God my problems, but rather I'm turning over my biggest concerns to him. It's only when I've put them in his capable hands that I can go about my day in his strength and freedom.

We must pray to God everyday to show we don't forget that all gifts come from Him. But if some wishes remain unfulfilled we must show our confidence in Him, for He knows best.

To pray means to send your report about the work you have done to That Center from which you have emerged. In reply you will receive peace and enlightenment.

Praying actualizes and deepens our communion with God. Our prayer can and should arise above all from our heart, from our needs, our hopes, our joys, our sufferings, from our shame over sin, and from our gratitude from the good. It can and should be a wholly personal prayer.

God pours His grace into our soul according to our capacity and according to our prayers, without violating our freedom. Therefore, we have to pray. This is our basic and first duty—not the prayer of petition only, to ask for graces, but the prayer of adoration. The first task of all creation is to adore God, to acknowledge His divinity, His majesty, His greatness.

To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbor and your world. In prayer, you encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your own heart.

Prayer is the act by which man, detaching himself from the embarrassments of sense and nature, ascends to the true level of his destiny.

Prayer oneth the soul to God. For though the soul be ever like to God in kind and substance, restored by grace, it is often unlike in condition, by sin on man's part. Then is prayer a witness that the soul willeth as God willeth; and it comforteth the conscience and enableth man to grace. And thus He teacheth us to pray, and mightily to trust that we shall have it. For He beholdeth us in love and would make us partners of His good deed, and therefore He stirreth us to pray for that which it pleaseth him to do. For which prayer and good will, that we have of His gift, He will reward us and give us endless meed.

65. If you long to pray, then avoid all that is opposed to prayer. Then when God draws near, he has only to go along with you.