Suzi and Prayer

Mother put her hand against Suzy's cheek. "I believe in prayer. You know that."
Suzy still sounded angry. "Prayer didn't keep Jeb from being hit by a motorcycle. It didn't stop Grandfather from having leukemia."
"Prayer was never meant to be magic," Mother said.
"Then why bother with it?" Suzy scowled.
"Because it's an act of love," Mother said.

- Madeleine L'Engle


To pray is to walk in the full light of God, and to say simply without holding back, "I am human and you are God." At that moment a conversion occurs, the restoration of the true relationship. A human being is not someone who once in a while makes a mistake, and God is not someone who now and then forgives. No, human beings are sinners and God is love.

- Henri Nouwen



If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then
I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle
around the same two themes: why God doesn?t act the way we want God
to, and why I don?t act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point
where those themes converge.?

- Philip Yancey



When a doctoral student at Princeton said, "What's there left in the world for original dissertation research?" Albert Einstein replied, "Find out about prayer. Somebody must find out about prayer."