The Big Question: What Is Prayer?

This collection of quotes from authors, theologians and philosophers, all seeking to answer that question: What is prayer?

Prayer is the cornerstone of a robust spiritual life. But it can look very different from person to person. Some people pray every day. Others, have a special spot where they go to pray. There are many who pray in their car, while stuck in traffic on the way home from work.

But what do we mean by prayer? What is prayer? And what does it mean to us?

Here a collection of thoughts from authors, theologians and philosophers, all seeking to answer that question: What is prayer?

A young woman prays

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Thérèse of Lisieux

“Prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”


A woman prays

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Georges Bernanos, author of The Diary of a Country Priest

“The wish to pray is a prayer in itself.”

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Charles Spurgeon, known as the Prince of Preachers

“True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that—it is a spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth.”


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Augustine of Hippo

“Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.”


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Beth Moore, author of Jesus, the One and Only

“True prayer, not just mindless, halfhearted petitions, is what digs the well God wants to fill with faith.”


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Jacques Ellul, author of Prayer and the Modern Man

“Prayer gives consistency to life, to action, to human relations, to the facts of human existence, both small and great. Prayer holds together the shattered fragments of the creation. It makes history possible. Therefore it is victory over nothingness.”


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Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter

“Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.”

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Henri Nouwen, theologian

“Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.”

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