Prayer is... The raising of one's mind and heart to God in thanksgiving and in praise of his glory. It can also include the requesting of good things from God. It is an act by which one enters into awareness of a loving communion with God. "Prayer is the response of faith to the free promise of salvation and also a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God" (CCC, no. 2561). —From the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
"To pray so as to grow and become more like Christ is the challenge of every Christian. To spread the gospel message of Christ in its fullness is the mission that accompanies baptism. The latter demands the former. You cannot give what you do not have. God is calling you to turn on the tap of your spiritual life. Not full blast, but just to a steady drip. If you put a bucket under a dripping tap eventually it will fill and once it is full it has to overflow. There is nowhere else for the water to go. The tap is our interior lives. The drops of water are the peace, joy, love, and happiness that are the fruits of prayer. The bucket is our hearts and souls. Drop by drop, through prayer and the sacraments, we are filled with this peace, joy, love and happiness, and once full we overflow. It is then that every place we go, every person we are with, begins to benefit from the overflowing of this peace, joy, love, and happiness, that we allow to flow from Christ through our words, actions, and even by our mere presence. When we love God, the conversion of society and the people around us will not have to be premeditated. It will be natural."
