The prayer of the just is holy converse in the intimacy of frienship with the God of our hearts, who is closer to us than we are to ourselves. In prayer, the soul is endowed with power from above; it experiences a strength that is not its own, but Christ's. In prayer the soul acquires and exercises all the virtues, particularly (besides religion) faith, hope, and charity. By these virtues, the soul traverses the distance seperating it from God; prayer is an actual participation of the divine Life; it is the child's sharing in the Father's knowledge and love of Himself.
Prayer takes its origin from the love of God, or at least from the desire to love God; and it is the great means of enkindling this love. It originates in love: it is the love of God or the desire for this love that leads us to pray - to apply our mind to Him. It results in an increase of love, that is its final purpose and ultimate effect.
What are the parts of prayer? From our definition, we can gather that they are acts of the reason and will. The intellect, or reason, considers the subject of prayer in the light of faith in order to arouse acts of the heart, that is, of the will and affections. Considerations - the acts of the reason - without acts of the will would be reflection, but not prayer. Acts of the will, cannot be habitually elicited without these preliminary considerations. But it is the acts of the will which unite our soul to God by conforming our will to His in love, and it is in this loving conformity of will that union with God consists. This conformity extends to fidelity to the duties of one's state in life.
Since prayer is conversation with God, we should introduce it with a realization of His presence. We may call to mind who He is, and who we are. He is all and we are not. We humble ourselves before Him and adore Him; then we have begun to pray.
II Corinthians 4:6
"Let light shine out of darkness"
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