Question: What is prayer and what’s the most effective way to pray? Should I be really be asking God for specific things?

Answer: Take time, at least twice a day — though preferably as often as you possibly can — to simply, deliberately become aware of what you are connected to, and then drop it in favor of your wish to have God’s Life. Prayer is not about asking for things from God, but first to be with Him, then in Him. This is the essence of prayer. It has nothing to do with gifts. It has to do with awakening to that Being that isn’t in time. This is the Gift of all gifts.

Question: How can I practice ceaseless prayer?

Answer: Consciously placing a short prayer within your own thoughts, and working to keep it there, helps to keep you from seeing only the content of your usual thoughts. This short, repeated supplication works like a message within a message — only when you see it there, within your own thoughts, its presence reawakens you to remember that you want to remember something Higher. Begin today, this moment, to use your whole life — every moment of it — to be for something that is in reality for you. So that when you’re eating, walking, talking, doing whatever you’re doing, you have your small unceasing prayer before you. Even if life starts to run away with you, keep your prayer running through you. Keep it right there on the mirror of your mind so that in the middle of any conversation or event you can look up and let it remind you of your wish to be for something Higher.