"What begins in a search through nothingness for God and for meaning ends in friendship. In our surrender we come to know God as friend: 'I shall not call you servants anymore ... I call you friends.' Without friendships something is dead within us. Just as a healthy openness, frankness, sincerity and an attitude of respect are fundamental as a foundation for prayer, these qualities are also developed in friendship. For deep friendship brings an empathetic knowledge of the other, an understanding that comes from love and compassion.
Friends grow together ... challenge each other. Friends have the power to draw the best out of us. To have formed a few very deep friendships is the blessing of a lifetime. Silence offers us the luxury of deepening our friendship with God ... of knowing how dearly we are loved by God. The Beloved will speak to us within our self-understanding, love us within our self-acceptance and celebrate with us when we celebrate with our friends."
Prayer is a response to God and to live coming from a heart that has been touched. How does a heart touched by God pray? Sometimes in pure gratitude it simply stands in awe rejoicing. And that is prayer! Sometimes it weeps. Sometimes it sings. At times it talks tenderly to God. At other times it might scream out in anger and pain. Sometimes it looks on the world with love, or rushes out to do good deeds. Sometimes it kneels without-stretched arms. Sometimes it merely yearns for God in deep, holy silence. All this is prayer.
