Friends, Let Us Pray

“I had not meant to write about prayer,” she tells us. “Several years ago I became aware of the feeling that I lived in prayer, but the gap between experience and expression seemed too great to bridge. Yet on several occasions I was required to bring my experience into focus in response to questions from a friend writing on prayer. The morning I started this essay I was unaware these ideas were fermenting close under the surface. I began the day armed with a shopping list, but because eight in the morning is too early to shop, first sat down to write letters. Hours later I got up, astonished to find this meditation in my hand. I have carried it through to this form for all who have nurtured, challenged and sustained my devotional life: my Meeting friends; Norman, Peter and Ruth, my family; Martha Gordon, Elined Kotschnig, Ruth Hoge, Heidi MacMahon, Ruth Smith, Dora Willson, John Yungblut.”