Prayer is not first an activity performed by the soul. It is participation in the life and communion of God.
Much of what we call prayer begins with our thoughts, anxieties, needs, and intentions. We reach outward toward God and attempt to produce something spiritual. Yet Christ is already within the regenerated spirit. The first movement of genuine prayer may therefore be not speaking, but turning, quieting, waiting, and receiving.
Abiding Before Doing
Abiding is not inactivity. It is the end of independent activity. The branch does not imitate the vine or manufacture fruit. It remains in living union with the source, and fruit appears as the expression of that union.
