“Deep silence leads us to suspect that, in the first place, prayer is acceptance. A person who prays is a person standing with their hands open to the world. They know that God will choose to be revealed in the nature which surrounds them, in the people they meet, in the situations they run into. They trust that the world holds God’s secret within it, and they expect that secret to be shown to them. Prayer creates that openness where God can give the divine Self to them. Indeed, God wants to give Self; God wants to surrender to the person God has created, God even begs to be admitted into the human heart.”
Adapted from With Open hands. H. Nouwen.