Selected prayer quotes

1. When I was crossing into Gaza, I was asked at the checkpost whether I was carrying any weapons. I replied: Oh yes, my prayer books.

2. We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more.

3. Only so you can appeal to your God and pray Him to support and bless your courage, your work, your perseverance, your strength, your resolution, and with all these your claim on life.

4. Pray always for all the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.

5. Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.

6. Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. Why do sinners' ways prosper? and why must Disappointment all I endeavour end?

7. White and shining virgin of all human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and strong companion partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer will give you the key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong, like all that is single and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen rests, nevertheless, on the material world; she takes possession of it; like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of light.

8. Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.

9. The government ought to stay out of the prayer business.

10. Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God.

11. When a soul has advanced so far on the spiritual road as to be lost to all the natural methods of communing with God; when it seeks Him no longer by meditation, images, impressions, nor by any other created ways, or representations of sense, but only by rising above them all, in the joyful communion with Him by faith and love, then it may be said to have found God of a truth, because it has truly lost itself as to all that is not God, and also as to its own self.

12. I always love to begin a journey on Sundays, because I shall have the prayers of the church to preserve all that travel by land, or water.

13. Farewell! if ever fondest prayer For other's weal avail'd on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky.

14. Put up at the moment of greatest suffering a prayer, not for thy own escape, but for the enfranchisement of some being dear to thee, and the sovereign spirit will accept thy ransom.

15. Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.

16. All names of God remain hallowed because they have been used not only to speak of God but also to speak to him.

17. When I was crossing into Gaza, I was asked at the checkpost whether I was carrying any weapons. I replied: Oh yes, my prayer books.

18. Three kinds of souls, three prayers: 1) I am a bow in your hands, Lord. Draw me, lest I rot. 2) Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break. 3) Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break.

19. Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

20. O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.

21. Farewell, farewell! but this I tell To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well Both man and bird and beast.

22. I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

23. Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

24. Sit and be still until in the time of no rain you hear beneath the dry wind's commotion in the trees the sound of flowing water among the rocks, a stream unheard before, and you are where breathing is prayer.

25. Thou canst not pray to God without praying to Love, but mayest pray to Love without praying to God.

26. 'The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God.'

27. 'Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.'

28. What is to be, will be, and no prayers of ours can arrest the decree.

29. I do not ask, O Lord, that life may be A pleasant road.

30. Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet - Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.

31. O God, if there is a God, forgive him his sins, if there is such a thing as sin.

32. Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you.... Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.

33. Writing is a form of prayer.

34. After sketching his program for the scientific revolution that he foresaw, Bacon ends his account with a prayer: 'Humbly we pray that this mind may be steadfast in us, and that through these our hands, and the hands of others to whom thou shalt give the same spirit, thou wilt vouchsafe to endow the human family with new mercies'. That is still a good prayer for all of us as we begin the twenty-first century.

35. Thou mastering me God! giver of breath and bread; World's strand, sway of the sea; Lord of living and dead; Thou hast bound bones and veins in me, fastened me flesh, And after it almost unmade, what with dread, Thy doing: and dost thou touch me afresh? Over again I feel thy finger and find thee.

36. Never invoke the gods unless you really want them to appear. It annoys them very much.

37. I care not what black spiritual crisis we may come through or what delightful spiritual Canaan we may enter, no blessing of the Christian life becomes continually possessed unless we are men and women of regular, daily, unhurried, secret lingerings in prayer.

38. Dear God, please take care of your servant John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

39. The best prayers have often more groans than words.

40. The very pure spirit does not bother about the regard of others or human respect, but communes inwardly with God, alone and in solitude as to all forms, and with delightful tranquility, for the knowledge of God is received in divine silence.

41. May God Almighty give our work His blessing, strengthen our purpose, and endow us with wisdom and the trust of our people, for we are fighting not for ourselves but for Germany.

42. Worship with fulness of heart the weak memory of heaven! It cannot trace Either your name or your face Nobody knows you're still living.

43. When we speak of prayer or of the results of prayer we always imply only one kind of prayer - petition, or we think that petition can be united with all other kinds of prayers.: Most prayers have nothing in common with petitions. I speak of ancient prayers; many of them are much older than Christianity. These prayers are, so to speak, recapitulations; by repeating them aloud or to himself a man endeavors to experience what is in them, their whole content, with his mind and his feeling.

44. I heard your prayers Thank God it's all over!

45. The Terrorists brought us to our knees, but not in the way they intended to. They brought us to our knees and united us all in prayer.

46. Wisdom and strength, and my family, is what I'd like you to pray for.

47. I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes, Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour.

48. That night, that year Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.

49. I believe in the existence of an immaterial God, the Author and Master of all beings and all things, and I feel that I never had any doubt of His existence, from the fact that I have always relied upon His providence, prayed to Him in my distress, and that He has always granted my prayers. Despair brings death, but prayer does away with despair; and when a man has prayed he feels himself supported by new confidence and endowed with power to act. As to the means employed by the Sovereign Master of human beings to avert impending dangers from those who beseech His assistance, I confess that the knowledge of them is above the intelligence of man, who can but wonder and adore.

50. When she knelt at the gothic prie-dieu she addressed the Lord with the same ardent words she had formerly murmured to her lover in the ecstasies of adultery. It was her way of praying for faith; but heaven showered no joy upon her, and she would rise, her limbs aching, with a vague feeling that it was all a vast fraud.

51. In the name of God, I put my trust in God. O God, I seek refuge in Thee lest I stray or be led astray or cause injustice or suffer injustice or do wrong or have wrong done to me!

52. Narrated Abu Qatadah: 'The Messenger of Allah came towards us while carrying Umamah the daughter of Abi Al-`As (Prophet's granddaughter) over his shoulder. He prayed, and when he wanted to bow, he put her down, and when he stood up he lifted her up.'

53. Narrated Umm Khalid: I (the daughter of Khalid ibn Said) went to Allah's Messenger with my father and I was wearing a yellow shirt. Allah's Messenger said, 'Sanah, Sanah!' (`Abdullah, the narrator, said that sanah meant 'good' in the Ethiopian language). I then started playing with the seal of prophethood (between the Prophet's shoulders) and my father rebuked me harshly for that. Allah's Messenger said, 'Leave her.' The Prophet, then, invoked Allah to grant her a long life thrice.

54. Sometimes I enter prayer and I intend to prolong it, but then I hear a child crying, and I shorten my prayer thinking of the distress of the child's mother.

55. The Prophet said, '(It happens that) I start the prayer intending to prolong it, but on hearing the cries of a child, I shorten the prayer because I know that the cries of the child will incite its mother's passions.'

56. 'The first thing that Allah made obligatory upon my Ummah was the five prayers; and the first thing from their acts of worship that shall be taken up will be the five prayers; and the first thing that they will be questioned about will be the five prayers.'

57. 'One who adheres to the five (daily) prayers diligently, they shall be a means of illumination and salvation for him on the Day of Judgment.'

58. 'The prayer of a person is (in reality) a light in his heart, so whoever desires, can illuminate his heart (by means of prayers).'

59. 'The prayer is one of the (primary) dictates of religion, in it lies the pleasure of the Lord, the Mighty and the Glorious, and it is the conduct of the Prophets.'

60. 'The prayer is the standard of Islam. Whosoever loves prayers, and observes their limits, timings and methods, is a true believer.'

61. 'For every thing there is a face and the face of your religion is prayers. So see to it that none from amongst you damages and disfigures the face of his religion.'

62. 'Whenever the time of each prayer arrives, an Angel announces to the people: (O' People!) Stand up and extinguish, with prayers, the fire which you have set alight for yourselves.'

63. 'The position of prayers with respect to religion is similar to that of the head with respect to the body.'

64. 'The example of the five (daily) prayers is like that of a clear-water river flowing in front of your houses in which a person washes himself five times a day - cleansing him from all dirt.'

65. 'The most beloved of deeds in the eyes of Allah are: offering prayers at the stipulated times; (then) goodness and kindness towards parents; (and then) Jihad in the way of Allah.'

66. 'One who considers the prayers to be insignificant and trivial is not from me. By Allah! He shall never come close to me at the pool of Kauthar.'

67. 'Do not destroy your prayers for verily one who destroys his prayers shall be resurrected in the company of Qarun, Haman and Fir`awn.'

68. 'Prayer is the pillar of your religion and one who intentionally forsakes his prayer has destroyed his religion. And one who does not guard the times of the prayers, shall be made to enter 'Wayl', which is a valley in Hell, as Allah, the Exalted, has said: 'So woe to the praying ones, who are unmindful of their prayers.'

69. Do not abandon your prayers intentionally for surely the obligations of Allah and His Messenger cease to cover one who forsakes his prayers intentionally.'

70. 'If a person abandons his prayer such that he neither desires its rewards nor fears its chastisement, for such a person I do not care if he dies a Jew, a Christian or a Magian.'

71. The good deeds of one who, without any appropriate excuse does not offer his prayer until its time passes away, are annulled.' He then said: 'The divide between a believer and disbelief is the abandonment of prayers.'

72. 'The name of one who forsakes his prayer intentionally is written upon The door of Hell from which he shall (eventually) enter.'

73. 'A person who circumambulates this House (the Ka'bah) seven times and performs the two Rak'at Salat (of Tawaaf) in the best form possible will have his sins forgiven.'

74. May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my Country and for the benefit of Europe in general a great and glorious victory; and may no misconduct in anyone tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature of the British fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen.

75. Father, Father Abraham, To-day look on us from above; On us, the offspring of thy faith, The children of thy Christ-like love.

76. Can a little speck in the vast universe truly address the Infinite? The answer is that Prayer is precisely what converts that little speck into an entity of inestimable and cosmic significance.

77. Prayer helps me to analyze the problem I face and to understand myself. It opens up a very important healing process. In my prayers I ask myself three key questions: 1. Are the goals I am pursuing appropriate? 2. Am I doing the right thing, based on my personal moral code, and, 3. Have I done my best, based on the alternatives open to me?

78. Hold the crucifix up before my eyes so I may see it until I die.

79. Praying against one's personal enemies is a transgression of law.

80. Prayer for our enemies is the very highest summit of self-control.

81. Many, throwing themselves prostrate, and striking the ground with their forehead, and pouring forth hot tears, and groaning bitterly from the heart and stretching out their hands, and displaying much earnestness, employ this warmth and forwardness against their own salvation. For it is not on behalf of their own sins that they beseech God; nor are they asking forgiveness of the offences committed by them; but they are exerting this earnestness against their enemies, doing just the same thing as if one, after whetting his sword, were not to use the weapon against his enemies, but to thrust it through his own throat. So these also use their prayers not for the remission of their own sins, but about revenge on their enemies; which is to thrust the sword against themselves.

82. If in order to put an end to public wars, and tumults, and battles, the Priest is exhorted to offer prayers for kings and governors, much more ought private individuals to do it.

83. If the soul has not reached the state of unitive love, it is necessary for it to make acts of love, as well in the active as in the contemplative life. But when it has reached it, it is not requisite it should occupy itself in other and exterior duties - unless they be matters of obligation - which might hinder, were it but for a moment, the life of love in God, though they may minister greatly to His service; because an instant of pure love is more precious in the eyes of God and the soul, and more profitable to the Church, than all other good works together, though it may seem as if nothing were done.

84. When the soul, then, in any degree possesses the spirit of solitary love, we must not interfere with it. We should inflict a grievous wrong upon it, and upon the Church also, if we were to occupy it, were it only for a moment, in exterior or active duties, however important they might be. When God Himself adjures all not to waken it from its love, who shall venture to do so, and be blameless? In a word, it is for this love that we are all created. Let those men of zeal, who think by their preaching and exterior works to convert the world, consider that they would be much more edifying to the Church, and more pleasing unto God - setting aside the good example they would give if they would spend at least one half their time in prayer, even though they may have not attained to the state of unitive love.

85. If you desire to discover peace and consolation for your soul and to serve God truly, do not find your satisfaction in what you have left behind, because in that which now concerns you you may be as impeded as you were before, or even more. But leave as well all these other things and attend to one thing alone that brings all these with it (namely, holy solitude, together with prayer and spiritual and divine reading), and persevere there in forgetfulness of all things.

86. 'I am happy and you should be happy too. Do not weep. Let us pray together with joy.'

87. PLA ce bo! Who is there, who? Di le xi! Dame Margery, Fa, re, my, my. Wherefore and why, why? For the soul of Philip Sparrow That was late slain at Carrow, Among the Nunnes Black. For that sweet soules sake, And for all sparrows' souls, Set in our bead-rolls, Pater noster qui, With an Ave Mari, And with the corner of a Creed, The more shall be your meed.

88. We shall be quiet and wait till a star falls from heaven. Can you see, how above one light appears after the other and they together form a dome! We sit in silence and fold our hands in prayer. We shall be quiet and wait until a star falls from heaven.

89. O Carpenter of Nazareth, Whose mother was a village maid, Shall we, Thy children, blow our breath In scorn on any humble trade? Have pity on our foolishness And give us eyes, that we may see Beneath the shopman's clumsy dress The splendor of humanity!

90. So much for all the prayers you've learned. They are no help to basic needs. And all the worlds they've shown you Just make you even greedier.

91. Poet, Singer, Great Heart, May our God bless your name, And the womb that held you, and the breasts that gave you milk. And may God forgive us all.

92. In spite of despair staring me in the face on the political horizon, I have never lost my peace. In fact, I have found people who envy my peace. That peace, I tell you, comes from prayer; I am not a man of learning, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer. I am indifferent as to the form. Every one is a law unto himself in that respect. But there are some well-marked roads, and it is safe to walk along the beaten tracks, trod by the ancient teachers.

93. Safety is not to be secured, then, by the wisest foresight. I shall embark more composedly in our merchant-ship, praying fervently, indeed, that it may not be my lot to lose my boy at sea, either by unsolaced illness, or amid the howling waves; or, if so, that Ossoli, Angelo, and I may go together, and that the anguish may be brief.

94. I only know one prayer - 'Give me the truth, Give me that colored whiteness, ancient youth, Complex and simple, seen in joy and ruth. Let me not by vain wishes bar my claim, Nor soothe my hunger by an empty name, Nor crucify the Son of man by hasty blame. But in the earth and fire, water and air, Live earnestly by turns without despair, Nor seek a home till home be every where!'

95. My prayer is not the whimpering of a beggar nor a confession of love. Nor is it the petty reckoning of a small tradesman: Give me and I shall give you. My prayer is the report of a soldier to his general: This is what I did today, this is how I fought to save the entire battle in my own sector, these are the obstacles I encountered, this is how I plan to fight tomorrow.

96. Within profound Silence, erect, fearless, in pain and in play, ascending ceaselessly from peak to peak, knowing that the height has no ending, sing this proud and magical incantation as you hang over the Abyss: I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD, DEFENDER OF THE BORDERS, OF DOUBLE DESCENT, MILITANT, SUFFERING, OF MIGHTY BUT NOT OF OMNIPOTENT POWERS, A WARRIOR AT THE FARTHEST FRONTIERS, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF ALL THE LUMINOUS POWERS, THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE. I BELIEVE IN THE INNUMERABLE, THE EPHEMERAL MASKS WHICH GOD HAS ASSUMED THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES, AND BEHIND HIS CEASELESS FLUX I DISCERN AN INDESTRUCTIBLE UNITY.

97. Since providence and necessity has cast them upon it, he should pray God to bless their counsels.

98. Before I pay for it, I pray for it.

99. Invoke Almighty God for, God willing, it will solve all difficulties.

100. All of our divine duties are blessings of God but we think they are obligations.