Prayer is truly a heavenly armor, and is alone can keep safe those who have dedicated themselves to God. Prayer is the common medicine for purifying ourselves from the passions, for hindering sin and curing our faults. Prayer is an inexhaustible treasure, an unruffled harbor, the foundation of serenity,the root and mother of myriads of blessings.
–Saint Nektarios of Aegina (1846-1920)
Have confidence in prayer. It is the unfailing power which God has given us. By means of it you will obtain the salvation of the dear souls whom God has given you and all your loved ones. “Ask and you shall receive,” Our Lord said. Be yourself with the good Lord.
–Saint Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868)
As my prayer became more attentive and inward I had less and less to say. I finally became completely silent. I started to listen – which is even the further removed from speaking. I first thought that praying entailed speaking. I then learnt that praying is hearing, not merely being silent. This is how it is. To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoming silent, and being silent, and waiting until God is heard.
–Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives – that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.
–Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)
Real prayer is union with God, a union as vital as that of the vine to the branch.
–Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Prayer is just conversation with God: listening to him; speaking with him; gazing upon him in silence. The best prayer is the one in which there is the most love. Adoration, wordless admiration, that is the most eloquent form of prayer: that wordless admiration which contains the most passionate declaration of love.
–Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
