Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. It is like a bird that has blundered down the flue and is caught indoors and flutters at the window panes. . . . But sometimes a prayer comes that you have not thought to pray, yet suddenly there it is and you pray it. . . . Sometimes the bird finds that what looks like an opening is an opening, and it flies away.
The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no one sees it. It is a Temple of majesty, yet no one regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not humans disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God, the place of Angels, and the Gate of Heaven.
~ from CENTURIES OF MEDITATIONS by Thomas Traherne
