Prayer is not...

Prayer is not
scrabbling together a few words,
flinging them like stones
at the windows
of ineffability.

It is Gelassenheit, letting go,
being carried on a current
toward a vast ocean,
deep beyond imagining;

sitting silently,
gaze firmly fixed
on one golden,
inscrutable face,
waiting,
with the patience of love;

pouring out life
that alabaster vial
of costly ointment,
at the feet of One
Who washes others
with his tears.

Prayer is
asking nothing,
desiring nothing
but this,
only this.

by Bonnie Thurston

(Quoted in Lost in Wonder, p. 52)