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.

God's providence is not in baskets lowered from the sky, but through the hands and hearts of those who love him. The lad without food and without shoes made the proper answer to the cruel-minded woman who asked, "But if God loved you wouldn't he send you food and shoes?" The boy replied, "God told someone, but he forgot."

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.

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

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.

It appears that when life is broken by tragedy God shines through the breach.

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