Prayer is not a vain attempt to change God's will; it is a filial desire to learn God's will and to share it. Prayer is not a substitute for work: it is the secret spring and indispensable ally of all true work.

Intercession is more than specific: it is pondered: it requires us to bear on our heart the burden of those for whom we pray.

Life is essentially a series of events to be lived through rather than intellectual riddles to be played with and solved.

We need deliberately to call to mind the joys of our journey. Perhaps we should try to write down the blessings of one day. We might begin; we could never end; there are not pens or paper enough in all the world.

For a man to argue, 'I don't go to church; I pray alone,' is no wiser than if he should say, 'I have no use for symphonies; I believe only in solo music.'

Prayer is not a substitute for work, thinking, watching, suffering, or giving; prayer is a support for all other efforts.

Prayer is listening as well as speaking, receiving as well as asking; and its deepest mood is friendship held in reverence. So the daily prayer should end as it begins - in adoration.