Prayer unites the soul to God, for though the soul may be always like God in nature and in substance restored by grace, it is often unlike God in condition, through separation on our part. Then prayer is a witness that the soul wills as God wills, and it eases the conscience and fits us for grace.
In an Indian village everything is related to the sacred and nothing is done without some sacrifice... If we are building a house, a hermitage or any other building, the craftsmen will come along and the first thing they will do is choose an auspicious day and hour. When the time comes for work to begin, they are all there for the blessing, ready to consecrate their work. They will not begin any work without that. When the work is coming to its fulfillment, ... there is another blessing because we can neither begin nor complete our work without God... The builder also relates to the cosmos. Building is a total act and therefore, it is totally consecrated.
