Ludmilla taught me that we can pray anywhere, during any kind of work that is being done attentively and well and to the best of our ability. In such work, God is present. We only have to know this and try to give it our heart. Many people wish to have spiritual development without obstacles or even effort, and so they will never understand God’s love or the poverty of our humanity.
Now is the moment for contemplatives. But what a vibrant presence we should have in the world, and in the depth of our silence. Not an escape, but a penetration to the very heart. That is what now I should like to understand and to make understood — and, most of all, to live. Respect for contemplative values in the world will not come because we preach about them, but because in our life of deep silence we are totally human.
~ from ABHISHIKTANANDA, ed. by James Stuart, thanks to S. Pascaline, OSB