Prayer is the act of returning to the House of God

The more deeply we enter the house of God, the house whose language is prayer, the less dependant we are on the blame or praise of those who surround us, and the freer we are to let our whole being be filled with that first love. As long as we are still wondering what other people say or think about us, and trying to act in ways that will elicit a positive response we are still victimised and imprisoned by the dark world in which we live. In that dark world we have to let our surroundings tell us what we are worth.

Prayer is entering into communion with the One who molded our being in our mothers womb with love and only love. There in our first love, lies our true self, a self not made up of the rejections and acceptances of those with whom we live, but solidly rooted in the One who called us into existence. In the house of God we were created. To that house we are called to return. Prayer is the act of returning.
~Henri Nouwen