Since love and truth are the cornerstones of life and since they are but other names for praise and thanksgiving, it follows that praise and thanksgiving are important components of prayer. This is because prayer in its truest form is an alignment between the spiritual self of each of us with the spiritual Power that defies human understanding.
Time ... The ancient ones knew that there was a relationship between time and light. That light has no time. Nothing can travel at the speed of light but light itself. If we approach the speed of light, we must become light. When we become light -- a Child of the Sun -- then time is dissolved. We all know that our deeds today affect tomorrow, that our smallest gestures influence destiny, that the future of our species changes constantly with every action of every living thing on Earth. Time is polychronic AND monochronic -- it does not fly like an arrow only. It also turns. Like a wheel. (He traced a circle in the air with his fingertip.) When these two kinds of time intersect, that is sacred time, ritual time, when you can influence the past and summon destiny from the future.
~ from JOURNEY TO THE ISLAND OF THE SUN by Alberto Villoldo & Erik Jendresen