Pastoral Resources

Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us - an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation.

Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God.

The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving.

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation the source of strength is one's self. When one prays he goes to a source of strength greater than his own.

God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers.

My mom taught us the Serenity Prayer at a young age.

What most of all hinders heavenly consolation is that you are too slow in turning yourself to prayer.

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

Rather than set aside daily time for prayer, I pray constantly and spontaneously about everything I encounter on a daily basis. When someone shares something with me, I'll often simply say, 'let's pray about this right now.'

Shakespeare is one of the last books one should like to give up, perhaps the one just before the Dying Service in a large Prayer book.

My father was an Episcopalian minister, and I've always been comforted by the power of prayer.

A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most perfect prayer.

We should not permit prayer to be taken out of the schools; that's the only way most of us got through.

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem or saying a prayer.

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.