The life of prayer is a journey with God as well as toward God, a journey in which prayer becomes for those who pursue it as natural as breathing. The first big step is to cease talking TO God and start listening FOR God. And that requires silence. Silence is the language God speaks, and everything else is a translation. "As long as you know you are praying, you are not praying properly", says Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast. When everything we do is prayer, the fruit is an increase in love, patience and compassion for others, leaving behind the unmistakable taste of holiness.
Love by its very nature is a gift freely given. And yet, this gift is known only as it is given again . . .Give as love gives -- just as the sun that gives its light to all who ask, or the sparrow that sings for the song itself. When you give love, love is your reward. When you judge some people worthy of your giving and other people as undeserving, you have forgotten love's law . . . The secret of unconditional love is that we are all the same, holy beyond imagine. This is what the release of fear reveals . . . This is what you will find when you open your heart to every element of creation.