For in the life of prayer,

we bring ourselves into an openness

that makes it possible for us to be freshly aware of God’s presence.

it is not that [God]

is not present at other times

but that by this voluntary act of ours,

the act of prayer,

we are enabled to break with our outer preoccupation

and to become aware of the presence

and of what that presence does to search

and to transform and to renew us

and to send us back into life again.

• Douglas V. Steere