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I like the expression when asked to pray for someone, " I shall hold
you in my heart."
Fwd. by Dean
Some thoughts on prayer that I have saved in my files. They nourish
my faith:
"Prayer is useful and it works - not because there in any invisible
listener but simply because when you put your desires and aspirations
into *words*, you put them in a form which the human brain is well-
equipped to deal with. The human brain is more efficient at
processing
verbalized data than mere unformulated feelings. Prayer can be
effective, much like making a daily "to do" list as I do. When you
formulate your thoughts into an organized pattern verbally expressed
you enhance the possibility that your brain will deal with them
productively."
"The mystical Jewish Hassidic taught that "if someone comes to you in
need, do not say, 'Have faith in God; God will provide.' Act as if
there were no God, and only you to provide. In this way even atheism
can be hallowed."
A man was lost in a desert. Later, when describing his ordeal to his
friends, he told how, in sheer despair, he had knelt down and cried
out to God to help him.
"And did God answer your prayer?" he was asked.
Oh, no! Before He could, an explorer appeared and showed me the way."
An old man would sit motionless in church for hours on end. One day a
priest asked him what God talked to him about.
"God doesn't talk. He just listens," was his reply.
"Well, then, what do you talk to him about?"
"I don't talk either. I just listen."
deMello says there are four stages of prayer:"I talk, you listen.
You talk, I listen. Neither talks, both listen. Neither talks,
neither listens: Silence.
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