On Prayer

Then a priestess said, Speak to us

of Prayer.

And he answered, saying:

You pray in your distress and in your

need; would that you might pray also

in the fullness of your joy and in your

days of abundance.

For what is prayer but the expansion of

yourself into the living ether?

And if it is for your comfort to pour

your darkness into space, it is also for

your delight to pour forth the dawning

of your heart.

And if you cannot but weep when your

soul summons you to prayer, she should

spur you again and yet again, though

weeping, until you shall come laughing.

When you pray you rise to meet in the

air those who are praying at that very

hour, and whom save in prayer you

may not meet.

Therefore let your visit to that temple

invisible be for naught but ecstasy and

sweet communion.

For if you should enter the temple for

no other purpose than asking you shall

not receive:

And if you should enter into it to

humble yourself you shall not be lifted:

Or even if you should enter into it to

beg for the good of others you shall not

be heard.

It is enough that you enter the temple

invisible.

I cannot teach you how to pray in words.

God listens not to your words save when

He Himself utters them through your

lips.

And I cannot teach you the prayer of the

seas and the forests and the mountains.

But you who are born of the

mountains and the forests and the seas

can find their prayer in your heart,

And if you but listen in the stillness

of the night you shall hear them saying

in silence,

“Our God, who art our winged self, it is

thy will in us that willeth.

It is thy desire in us that desireth.

It is thy urge in us that would turn our

nights, which are thine, into days which

are thine also.

We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou

knowest our needs before they are born

in us:

Thou art our need; and in giving us more

of thyself thou givest us all.”