WHAT IS PRAYER?
(Thursday) I've been listening to a taped talk by Fr. Thomas Hopko. He is very quotable.

Prayer is the conscious, purposeful, intentional act through which we are united fully and completely with God...(through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit) for the purpose of living a divine life. Because a human life to be human has to be divine because we're made in the image and likeness of God. We have to have all the qualities of God. So the purpose of prayer is to have all the qualities of God. Because that is God's will. It is God's will that we share divinity fully...

Prayer is the action by which we show that we want what God wants -- and that's what God wants.