When we find ourselves dissatisfied or anxious about our prayer it is worth asking ourselves the question: `What do I really want?' and trying to listen honestly to the answer. We can be fairly certain that it will be some kind of ego-satisfaction.

we are overlooking the fundamental fact: that prayer is not a technique but a relationship. There

Christian prayer is nothing other than being present to God so that God can give to us. The only thing that matters is that we believe this and stay there with Him, regardless of how we feel or don't feel.

Theoretical knowledge is not enough. We suffer from the same inbuilt blindness and resistance to recognition as they did.

If we are convinced that this is the heart of prayer, this basic decision to remain open to the inflowingof divine love, then we shall understand that we can choose any method we like to help us maintain this basic desire and intention.

Fidelity to time, mental and psychological preparation, spiritual reading: these three activities are our contribution, like the meagre bread and wine we bring to the Eucharist.

Jesus has become our Way, our Truth and our Life because he declined to have any way of his own, any truth or reality of his own, only the Father's.

Nowhere, except when he is quoting the Shema, does Jesus speak of our loving the Father. He tells us we must believe in the Father, trust him, obey him, and love our neighbour. It can seem presumptuous to speak of loving God - as though we could! We

Prayer is not just one function in life, not even the most important function; it is life itself. We are truly alive, truly human, only when our whole life is prayer.