When we choose to pray ...

When we choose to pray we accept the invitation to come and see who this God of goodness is, and to come to see who we are as God’s cherished one.  Prayer is an essential way of kindling and developing this relationship.  If we are going to have quality prayer, we will need to take time to stay with the Holy One in prayer, to become familiar with the depth of Love in the center of our being.  As we increasingly commit ourselves to keeping this relationship alive and thriving, not only is more of God’s essence revealed; we also come to know more our own true self 

Trusting anyone with our shadow side is difficult to do.  In prayer we risk allowing our whole self to be revealed and known.  As we do so, we grow in our ability to be our bare-bones-self with God.  This does not happen automatically.  Growth in trust requires deliberate choices to spend time with the Other, humbly opening up, believing that all of who we are will be received with merciful kindness. 

Joyce Rubb, Prayer
(from the Gethsemani Visitors Center)