on prayer | 4

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[A little collection of quotes & things on prayer.]

"The very question 'Does prayer work?' puts us in the wrong frame of mind from the outset. 'Work,' as if it were magic, or a time machine--something that functions automatically. Prayer is either a sheer illusion or a personal contact between embryonic, incomplete persons (ourselves) and the utterly concrete Person. Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In it God shows himself to us. That he answers prayers is a corollary--not necessarily the most important one--from that revelation. What he does is learned from what he is."

(C.S. Lewis, The Efficacy of Prayer)
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