Prayer is not primarily something we are doing to God, something we are giving to God, but what God is doing for us. And what God is doing for us is giving the divine Self in love.
Prayer is the longing of the human heart for God. In and through prayer we discover our true selves, the self that God has created each of us to be....
-- Ilia Delio
The practice of the Prayer will initially take some serious self-discipline, but it gradually grows sweet, and then irresistible. The hope of protection from your own vicious or self-hating thoughts is alone a strong impetus to persevere. Day by day the healing advances, and continual immersion in Christ’s presence becomes your goal. One day you will find that the Prayer is starting up within you on its own, like a dearly loved melody.
“Prayer of the heart” occurs when the Prayer moves from merely mental repetition, forced along by your own effort, to an effortless and spontaneous self-repetition of the Prayer that emanates from the core of your being, your heart.
-- Frederica Mathewes-Green
