December 21

At the highest level of consciousness, an individual is alone. Such solitude can seem strange, unusual, even difficult. Foolish people try to escape it by means of various dissipations in order to get away from this high point, to some point lower, but wise people remain at this high point, with the help of prayer.

 

God wants us to fulfill his will here on earth, in our lives. But life's interests and passions distract us from this every minute. When we understand this, we can gird ourselves with the physical expression of our attitude to God, prayer.

 

A personality is a limitation and, therefore, God, as we understand Him, is not a personality. Prayer is our address to God and yet how can we address one who has no personality? I address God as if He were a person, though I know it is not so.

 

A person buried in a deep mine, freezing from the cold in deep ice, dying from hunger alone on the open sea, wasting away in solitude in a prison cell, or simply dying at home, deaf and blind — how could this person live out the remainder of his life if prayer did not exist?

 

How good a person feels when, exhausted from striving for goodness in his everyday life, he stretches out his hands to God.

— Blaise Pascal

 

One can live without prayer either when he is possessed by his passions or when his life is completely dedicated to God. But for a person who is fighting this passion and yet far from fulfilling his duty, prayer is a necessary condition of life.