Theme
Witnesses on prayer
Masters of prayer: the ones who wrote down what they were doing when they prayed.
A few words
The impulse to pursue God originates with God himself.
The Eucharist is my highway to Heaven.
The spiritual life is not a special career, involving abstraction from the world of things. It is a life which includes and redeems every department of human existence.
Give us grace, Almighty Father, so to pray as to deserve to be heard.
It is Canada that I showed you; you must go there and build a house for Jesus and Mary.
What grateful thanks My dear Sister I owe you, for your kind letters, over which I have wept again, and again, and prayed for my beloved brother, whose grief I share, but cannot measure even by that which fills my heart. All human sympathy are but drops of comfort in his great sorrow, but God in his mercy will open a fountain of consolation to his mourning spirit.
All 317 witnesses on prayer
- A. W. Tozer The thirst for God kept alive, and the refusal to settle for a lukewarm faith.
- Abba Agathon Prayer understood as a fight, to the last breath.
- Abba Arsène Chosen withdrawal, and silence kept as a piece of work.
- Abba Poemen Patience that wears down hardness drop by drop, without any great gesture.
- Abraham Joshua Heschel Wonder as the root of prayer, and prayer that walks out into the street.
- Adam de Saint-Victor Prayer sung, which puts faith in the mouth before it puts it in the head.
- Adelaide Anne Procter Thanksgiving that remembers to give thanks for the shadow too.
- Aelred de Rievaulx Praying two together, and finding that there were not two.
- Agathe de Catane The quiet refusal of whatever enslaves; freedom kept even in another's hands.
- Alcuin d'York Praying where one has been placed, while missing the silence one has left.
- Alexandros Papadiamantis Praising God in the language of one's own village, without changing register for the printed page.
- Alexis Khomiakov Prayer understood as an act that is never solitary, and theology done by working hands.
- Alfred Delp Adoration that stays standing when everything else is taken away.
- Alice Meynell Prayer held inside a crowded life, and renunciation that does not put out tenderness.
- Alphonse de Liguori Praying without ceasing as the great means of salvation, trust in the goodness of God.
- Ambroise de Milan Authority turned into service, a faith that is sung before it is argued.
- Amma Théodora Humility preferred to feats of endurance; the winter of trials received as a season that does its work.
- André Bessette The self-effacement of one who refers every grace beyond himself.
- André de Crète Beginning again, when one no longer knows where to start.
- Andrew Murray The patient school of prayer, learned day after day like a friendship that abides.
- Angèle de Foligno Dispossession become encounter: as everything is taken away, discovering God present in all things.
- Angélique Arnauld Wanting to be where you are, because God wants it.
- Angelus Silesius Brevity as prayer: a few words that are enough to stand before God.
- Anne Brontë Ordinary courage, asked for quietly and with no one watching.
- Anne Hutchinson Inward freedom before those who sit in judgement, and the word one does not take back.
- Anne Steele Asking, being refused, and going on praying without bitterness.
- Anselme de Cantorbéry Faith seeking understanding, and the mind that prays as it seeks to understand.
- Antoine Bloom Beginning to pray where God seems absent, and standing at the door without forcing the meeting.
- Antoine de Padoue Letting deeds preach before words, seeking what was lost.
- Antoine le Grand The desert as a school: a solitude that does not flee people but learns to carry them.
- Aphraate le Sage persan Prayer measured not by its words but by the clarity of the heart and the deeds it produces.
- Apolo Kivebulaya Walking on with your fear, because a voice has said: I am with you.
- Argula von Grumbach Speaking up without a mandate, because one has read and can no longer keep silent.
- Athanase d'Alexandrie Holding the faith whole when it would be so easy to shave it down.
- Augustin d’Hippone Conversion as the belated welcome of a presence that had always been waiting.
- Augustus Tolton Quiet faithfulness under contempt, and the God-given dignity that no rejection can take away.
- Baal Shem Tov Fervent prayer: to enter with one's whole being into every word addressed to God.
- Bahya ibn Paquda Trust as rest: setting down what one was never able to carry.
- Bartolo Longo The turning around of a life given over to the dark; repeated prayer as a way of rebuilding.
- Basile de Césarée Gathering the scattered mind back to God, and letting prayer open our hands to the poor.
- Bède le Vénérable Long, obscure work carried through to the last day, and study that turns into prayer.
- Benoît-Joseph Labre Destitution chosen as a form of prayer; a wandering that seeks nothing to keep.
- Bernadette Soubirous Littleness embraced without shame: saying what one has received, then disappearing into the ordinary.
- Bernard de Clairvaux The love of God as desire without measure.
- Beruriah To pray for the end of evil rather than for the end of the wicked.
- Boèce The search for truth held fast in the night, and the mind that rises in prayer at the heart of misfortune.
- Bonaventure Letting knowledge become prayer, seeking God with mind and heart.
- Boniface de Mayence Asking others to pray for you, and not keeping silent when one should speak.
- Brigitte de Suède One life given whole, in marriage as in solitude, without surrendering any freedom of speech.
- Bruno le Chartreux Inhabited silence; solitude as the place where one becomes available again.
- C. S. Lewis Faith regained through reason and friendship, and the prayer that dares raw truth before God.
- Cædmon de Whitby A gift received late and unearned, and given straight back as praise.
- Carlo Acutis Living as an original, not a copy; making the ordinary a path to God.
- Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Ordinary life ordered toward Easter: living each day awaiting the night when all is raised up.
- Caryll Houselander The inner emptiness consented to, so that God's breath may make its music there.
- Cassienne de Constantinople To speak the truth without flattery, and to sing the mercy offered to those who turn back.
- Catherine de Bologne The spiritual struggle waged in distrust of self and trust in God.
- Catherine de Gênes Pure love: to seek nothing for oneself in prayer, but God alone.
- Catherine de Sienne The audacity of speaking truth (to the powerful and to God) because love demands it.
- Catherine Doherty The inner desert sought in the midst of an active life, where one falls silent to listen to God.
- Catherine Labouré Staying hidden to leave all the room to God, faithfulness in obscure tasks.
- Cecil Frances Alexander Saying the highest things in words a child can carry.
- Charbel Makhlouf The silent prayer of a hidden life, that says nothing and yet shines.
- Charles de Foucauld “His compassions are new every morning.” Charles de Foucauld made dawn itself a prayer: to begin with open hands, holding nothing back from the day before, and to entrust the coming hour to the One who has already gone ahead of it. His self-abandonment is not resignation. It is receiving the day as a gift already begun.
- Charles Eastman (Ohíye S'a) Silence as the first act of prayer, before any word.
- Charles Spurgeon Prayer as a rope pulled from below that makes heaven ring, and joy held even in trial.
- Charles Wesley Doctrine set to song so that busy hands can pray it.
- Christiana Tsai Ceasing to ask why, in order to ask what there is to do.
- Christina Rossetti When there is nothing else, giving one's heart (poverty made into an offering).
- Christopher Smart Praise that goes on where the mind gives way.
- Claire d'Assise The gaze held on Christ until one becomes what one beholds.
- Claire de Montefalco Not praying from a distance about what one has been through.
- Clément d'Alexandrie Faith that runs through the ordinary day, down to its plainest gestures.
- Clément de Rome The prayer of a divided community, which asks first of all to see clearly.
- Clement Marau Holding a distant post alone, and making solitude an inhabited place.
- Colette de Corbie Letting oneself be reformed before reforming, keeping one's gaze on the cross.
- Conchita Cabrera de Armida Ordinary life (weddings, griefs, household accounts) lived as a place of God.
- Cyprian Michael Tansi To give oneself to God without half-measures, and to prefer the hidden life to renown: an ordinary holiness, African and monastic.
- Cyprien de Carthage Common prayer that holds the Church together when all falls apart.
- Cyrille de Jérusalem Taking beginners by the hand, and opening the mysteries step by step.
- Cyrille de Tourov Naming yourself before God, with no one in between.
- Cyrille et Méthode The conviction that every language and culture can carry the Word, and that God speaks to each person in their mother tongue.
- Dhuoda de Septimanie Prayer held across distance, when love can only write and entrust the absent one to God.
- Dominique de Guzmán Praying at night for the people one meets by day.
- Dorothe Engelbretsdatter The evening prayer of someone who has counted what is left.
- Dorothy Day Holding together daily prayer and the open table.
- Dorothy Pattison Prayer held inside a working day that leaves no time for it.
- Douceline de Digne Prayer held as the tie that holds everything else.
- Égérie Prayer that sets out on the road, curious for the places where God let Himself be found.
- Élisabeth de la Trinité The prayer of the interior: to seek God not far off but in the depths of oneself, and to abide there.
- Élisabeth de Schönau Speaking when you would rather have kept silent.
- Elizabeth Ann Seton Lifting the heart to God in the midst of everything, without waiting for perfect silence.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning The certainty that nothing is small, and that God sometimes answers too fast.
- Elizabeth Prentiss The request to love more, repeated in the hollow of grief and of featureless days.
- Ellen Lakshmi Goreh The hidden place one withdraws to, which fits inside the heart.
- Emily Dickinson Prayer held at arm's length, and held all the same.
- Emma Rooke The prayer of someone writing to another who has lost the same thing.
- Emmélie de Césarée Offering God what one holds dearest, by naming it to him.
- Éphrem le Syrien Prayer as a happy thirst: drinking from a spring no one will ever drain.
- Eric Liddell Staying useful where one is shut in, and believing that nothing is lost.
- Esther Ahn Kim Memory as the last possession, when everything else is confiscated.
- Étienne de Hongrie Responsibility lived out before God: governing, deciding, working while remaining a person of prayer.
- Etty Hillesum Prayer in the midst of darkness. Keeping the heart large.
- Évagre le Pontique Attention as work: what goes on in the head while one prays.
- Evelyn Underhill Prayer given back to everyone: not a separate career, but an ordinary life turned toward God.
- Fannie Lou Hamer Prayer that rises and sets out walking: believing that God acts through those who refuse to resign themselves.
- Faustine Kowalska Trust in mercy, above all when one knows oneself poor and weak.
- François de Sales Gentleness as strength, and holiness offered to ordinary life.
- Frère Laurent de la Résurrection “Come to me, all you who are weary.” The rest he promises is not the end of work, but a presence within it. Brother Lawrence found it among the pots of his monastery kitchen: doing the smallest task for the love of God, and never doing it alone. The tiredness remains; the weight is shared.
- Frère Roger de Taizé Trust of the heart: a simple prayer, sung and silent, that reconciles what was separated.
- Gabriela Mistral Tenderness for those who are not one's own, and each day's work carried in prayer.
- Gabriele Allegra The long hidden labor in service of the Word, offered day after day without seeing its end.
- Gemma Galgani The bare desire for God when he alone remains, the love that is enough for everything.
- George Fox Inward listening preferred to every authority, and light found inside the night itself.
- George Herbert Prayer woven into the humblest gestures of the everyday.
- George Müller The concrete trust that places each need into God's hands and waits, with the books open.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins Praise wrung from an exhausted body, and prayer that dares to complain.
- Gertrude d'Helfta Prayer as friendship: to let oneself be wounded by love and answer the One who speaks to the heart.
- Giorgio La Pira Putting prayer at the beginning of action; taking the whole world as the subject of intercession.
- Glückel de Hameln Praying in the middle of the accounts, the childbeds and the debts, without separating the two lives.
- Godric de Finchale A song received rather than composed, and long faithfulness to a single place.
- Grégoire de Narek Offering God one's very groans, lament turned into prayer.
- Grégoire de Nazianze Remembering God as one breathes: a prayer as continual as breath itself.
- Grégoire de Nysse The desire for God that is never satisfied: to move endlessly, from beginning to beginning, toward the One we never finish finding.
- Grégoire de Tours Speaking to God, and of people, in the language you have rather than the one you wish you had.
- Grégoire Palamas The prayer of the heart: to stand in silence and let the light of God give itself.
- Guigues II le Chartreux Praying out of a slowly read text, and letting reading turn into taste.
- Guillaume de Saint-Thierry Love treated as an art, learned only from the one who gave it.
- Hadewijch d'Anvers The love of God lived as a demanding passion, not a quiet feeling.
- Hannah More Prayer understood as desire rather than speech, and a piety proved in the use of one's days.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe The early-morning prayer that asks for nothing but a presence.
- Hélder Câmara Hope that takes risks: keeping watch in the night and believing the desert can bloom.
- Héloïse du Paraclet The prayer that refuses to lie to itself about what it feels.
- Henri Suso Measure kept in speech, so the heart stays livable.
- Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia The desire to learn held against everything, and prayer stammered in a language not one's own.
- Herman d'Alaska Inhabited solitude: never being alone where God is, and beginning to love now, without waiting for tomorrow.
- Herrade de Landsberg Patiently gathering what you have received, in order to hand it on.
- Hilaire de Poitiers Faith seeking to understand, without shrinking the mystery it adores.
- Hildegarde de Bingen Creation shot through with a divine sap, and the praise that rises from all that lives.
- Howard Thurman Going down to one's center: finding again in the inner silence the genuine voice God has placed there.
- Hugues de Saint-Victor Order and love of study, patient formation of the mind, discipline of attention as a spiritual path. Everything he touches becomes a staircase toward God.
- Ignace d'Antioche Desire that passes through fear: wanting God even in what costs the most, holding nothing back.
- Ignace de Loyola To seek and find God in all things, and to hand over to him all one's freedom.
- Ignacia del Espíritu Santo Foundation against the current, patience under suspicion, dignity claimed for local women when the Church itself doubted them.
- Isaac le Syrien Radical honesty about the inner life, tenderness toward human weakness, a theology of mercy wide enough to unsettle the strict.
- Isaac Penington Long inward searching resolved into simplicity, courage to leave comfort and status behind, testimony to the Light that needs no institution to be true.
- Isaac Watts Turning frailty into song, patient creativity under long confinement, a gift for putting complex faith into words ordinary people could sing.
- Isabelle de Villena Prayer given back to the women who already carried it, and were no longer heard.
- Isidore de Péluse The prayer of someone who treats other people's ordinary business as serious business.
- Isidore le Laboureur Manual work held as continuous prayer; poverty that still gives.
- Jacinta Marto A child's prayer for the world, the simple offering of small sorrows.
- Jacques de Saroug Prayer that becomes song, and the humble request to be a simple instrument in the breath of God.
- Jakob Böhme Inner stillness as the first place of listening, kept in the middle of a trade and a household.
- Jan Tyranowski The inner life of a man with no title; handing on faith through friendship rather than from a pulpit.
- Jan van Ruusbroec Mystical depth that refuses to stay private, writing in the common tongue so contemplation belongs to everyone, union with God that flows back out into action.
- Janani Luwum The word held firm before violence, and the prayer that does not yield to fear.
- Jane Austen The examination of a day made with irony towards oneself and gentleness towards others.
- Jarena Lee Persistence against a closed door, courage to preach without permission when permission never came, an authority claimed from conviction rather than granted by title.
- Jean Cassien Careful transmission of hard-won wisdom, patience with the restless mind, a bridge built between traditions so nothing of value would be lost.
- Jean Climaque Climbing step by step: the spiritual life as patience, where the highest prayer is still a child's.
- Jean Colobos Humility learned the hard way, the marriage of ordinary work and ceaseless prayer, wisdom compressed into short unforgettable sayings.
- Jean Damascène Incarnate prayer: to raise the mind to God who drew near even in matter.
- Jean de Cronstadt Daily, stubborn prayer at the heart of the city and its misery, not far from the world, but within it.
- Jean de la Croix Poetry forged in the dark, a map of the soul's darkest nights toward union with God, fidelity to reform even when it cost him everything.
- Jean de Rila The short prayer repeated in working hands, until it holds up on its own.
- Jean de Shanghai et San Francisco Ceaseless prayer and charity without borders, kept intact under slander.
- Jean Hus Holding to what one has understood, even alone, even without support.
- Jean Racine Willingness to abandon fame for conscience, a return to childhood faith after years of glittering distance, mastery of language turned finally toward humbler ends.
- Jean Tauler Descending to the ground of the soul where God speaks, praying in bareness.
- Jean XXIII Trusting simplicity, handing the world's cares back to God each evening.
- Jean-Marie Vianney Perseverance in an obscure post, and the certainty that prayer is our happiness.
- Jeanne Jugan Chosen littleness, which awaits all from God and serves the forgotten.
- Jérôme de Stridon Prayer fed by Scripture: to seek Christ in the Word and to keep oneself busy there.
- John Greenleaf Whittier Silence asked for in the middle of one's own noise.
- John Newton Repentance that comes late and works anyway, and grace found wider than the memory of the harm one has done.
- John Wesley Faith that takes to the road toward those no one reaches.
- John Woolman A conscience that moves one step at a time, without seeing the road, and the silence in which strength is renewed.
- José de Anchieta Learning the language of those you are sent to; writing where there is no paper.
- Josephine Butler Prayer that pushes outward, toward those society covers with shame.
- Juda Halevi The longing for a place one may never see, which orients everything else.
- Julien Nakaura The prayer of someone who gives his name when it would be wiser to keep quiet.
- Kaʻahumanu The prayer of someone carrying too heavy a load, who says so.
- Kateri Tekakwitha Stubbornly seeking what pleases God when everyone around opposes it.
- Katharina Schütz Zell Consoling by letter those one cannot reach.
- Katharina von Schlegel A legacy reduced to almost nothing but a single hymn, stillness urged onto a soul from someone who left almost no trace of her own, anonymity that let one work speak for a whole life.
- Kuriakose Elias Chavara Prayer that takes flesh in education and the life of families.
- Kyrillos VI Leadership drawn from prayer, when action never leaves recollection.
- Lancelot Andrewes Prayer patiently shaped in secret, made of praise, confession, and remembrance.
- Liliʻuokalani Dispossession borne without hatred, and the prayer that remains when no other recourse does.
- Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort The prayer of someone who has put nothing aside for tomorrow.
- Lucretia Mott The inward light recognised in every human being, with no exception and no precondition.
- Lutgarde d'Aywières The exchange of hearts: giving one's own, receiving another's.
- Macaire l'Égyptien The shortest prayer: when words fail, stretching out one's hands and letting mercy do the rest.
- Madame Élisabeth de France Calm consent to what was never chosen.
- Madeleine Delbrêl “You prepare a table before me… and my cup overflows.” Madeleine Delbrêl sought that overflow not in the desert, but in the middle of the city, among neighbors and ordinary tasks. Gratitude, for her, is recognizing that the table is already set, that everyday life itself is the place of grace.
- Madre Castillo Making of bitterness a nest you can live in.
- Mama Antula Boldness that perseveres: when the roads seem closed, walking on anyway and letting Providence smooth them.
- Marcel Van The little way of love, when life is reduced to almost nothing.
- Margaret Fell An open house as a form of prayer, and speech claimed for those refused it.
- Margery Kempe The prayer of tears: to bring before God a weeping heart, neither justifying it nor silencing it.
- Marguerite de Navarre Prayer turned into song, when fear or illness has taken up all the room.
- Marguerite Ebner Silence as a place where prayer can live.
- Marguerite Porete Silence before those who judge, and a stripping-away carried to the point of asking for nothing.
- Marguerite-Marie Alacoque The discovery that the heart of God loves first, and that one can answer that love in the most ordinary life.
- Maria Gabriella Sagheddu Giving one's life so that the divided may be one, praying where one does not understand.
- Maria W. Stewart Taking the floor when no one has given it to you.
- Mariam Baouardy Letting the Spirit lift you like a little nothing: the simplicity that asks for light before acting.
- Marianne de Jésus de Quito Offering one's life for one's people, praying in secret for the whole city.
- Marie de l'Incarnation Union with God that holds fast amid business, crossings and heartbreak.
- Marie Dentière Not keeping to oneself what one has received, on the grounds that one has no right to speak of it.
- Marie-Alphonsine Ghattas Constant prayer that takes flesh in teaching the lowly.
- Marie-Dominique Mazzarello The work of one's hands turned into prayer, simple gladness as a path to God.
- Marie-Madeleine de Pazzi Thirst for the Love that is neither loved nor known, the fire of the Spirit that purifies.
- Martin Buber Prayer as encounter: to stand before God and before the other with one's whole being.
- Mary Prince Testimony given by the one who endured, and hope held while nothing is resolved.
- Mary Slessor Prayer as a climate: a whole life breathed in answered prayer, unhurried, one day at a time.
- Matt Talbot Starting again one day at a time; a deliverance not told but held.
- Matta el-Meskeen Prayer as God's work in us before it is our effort: stepping into a labor already begun.
- Maximilien Kolbe A life offered in exchange for a stranger's, courage that turned a death camp into the site of the clearest possible love, a sacrifice witnessed and outlived by the very man it saved.
- Mechthilde de Magdebourg Love as a current that carries the soul, and the trust to let oneself be plunged into it.
- Menno Simons The faith that cannot lie down, and that gets up as concrete acts.
- Michi Kawai The work you begin small, with no guarantee, because no one else will begin it.
- Moïse l'Éthiopien Not to judge the faults of others while already carrying one's own.
- Moïse Maïmonide Attention, without which the right words are still only words.
- Monique Patient, stubborn prayer for those we love, held through the years.
- Nahman de Bratslav The free, spoken conversation with God, and joy chosen against the sadness that stifles.
- Nahmanide Prayer begins in the way one speaks to others the rest of the day.
- Narayan Vaman Tilak To recognize the beloved face at the end of a long search, and to hand everything over to him.
- Nectaire d'Égine Gentleness in the face of injustice; prayer held as a conversation that is never broken off.
- Nersès Shnorhali Prayer hour after hour: to confess one's faith and ask again for mercy through the whole day.
- Nicholas Black Elk The peace that begins inside a person, and two inheritances of prayer carried without setting them against each other.
- Nicodème l'Hagiorite Handing on rather than producing; placing the prayer of the ancients into today's hands.
- Nicolas Cabasilas The interior life made possible without leaving one's trade or changing one's state.
- Nicolas du Japon Patient proclamation that draws near to a language and a people, effacing itself before the Church it has served.
- Niijima Jō (Joseph Neesima) The prayer of a man praying in a half-learned language, and the desire to teach his own people held through years of exile.
- Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini Faithfulness to the hour of prayer, kept without display, year after year.
- Nonna de Nazianze The prayer of a mother who forces no one; a household constancy more effective than argument.
- Ntsikana Finding in one's own language the words to name God, without waiting to be given them.
- Olivier Messiaen Seeking God in what already sings; making the ear an organ of prayer.
- Origène d'Alexandrie Not separating what one does from what one asks for.
- Oswald Chambers The unreserved surrender to God in the present moment, without bargaining over the future.
- Padre Pio Making prayer a daily weapon, handing anxiety over to God.
- Païssios du Mont-Athos Prayer woven into the work of the hands, and the compassion that prays by carrying another's pain.
- Païssy Velitchkovsky Handing on what you did not invent, cleaning it patiently as you go.
- Patrick d'Irlande Prayer learned in captivity, and the forgiveness that goes back toward those who wounded.
- Paula de Rome Stripping oneself bare by choice, late and in full strength, and a taste for the Scriptures learned for good.
- Pedro de San José Betancur The charity of one who, having known destitution, makes it the place of his prayer.
- Philip Doddridge The inner life understood as something kept up or lost, and clear sight about what eats away a day.
- Philipp Jacob Spener Prayer given back into ordinary people's hands, at home.
- Philippe Néri Joy as a way to God: a holiness without pose, refusing to take itself seriously so as to take God seriously.
- Philon d'Alexandrie Praying at set hours, and letting the whole day order itself around them.
- Philoxène de Mabboug Faith understood as an organ of sight, and simplicity held to be the condition of every other virtue.
- Phoebe Palmer Holiness open to all, given in the moment to whoever surrenders without delay.
- Polycarpe de Smyrne Keeping and handing on the faith received, and standing firm to the end without raising one's voice.
- Porphyrios de Kavsokalyvia The way of love rather than of anxious effort, and God sought as one loves.
- Proba Making what you already know into the matter of praise.
- Rabbi Akiva To love God to the last breath, and to hold every person as beloved.
- Rafaravavy Rasalama The singing that holds a person upright when nothing is left but the voice.
- Raïssa Maritain The demand for truth pushed to its limit, and hidden contemplation in the midst of a life of conversations.
- Raymond Lulle The desire for God lived as burning love, even in the meeting with the other.
- Rebecca Gratz Consoling without claiming to measure another's grief.
- Richard Allen Dignity that does not shout and does not yield, and anger turned into a house built.
- Richard Baxter Meditation kept as a regular appointment, and the humility that comes of the frequenting itself.
- Romanos le Mélode The Gospel sung as living drama of the human heart, and prayer carried by beauty.
- Rosa Parks The inward decision made before the trial, which makes fear fall away of itself.
- Rosalie Rendu Prayer that carries on into the service of the poorest, contemplation held in the middle of the street.
- Rose de Lima The certainty that trial is not a dead end but a passage, and that grace comes after.
- Rose-Philippine Duchesne Prayer offered when one can do nothing else, held as true labour before God.
- Sadhu Sundar Singh Desiring God himself rather than his gifts, and making the whole road a prayer.
- Salomon ibn Gabirol Praise that knows it will not reach its object, and complaint that dares be spoken inside the prayer.
- Sandra Sabattini The holiness of ordinary youth, and prayer become simple conversation with God.
- Sarah du désert Holding fast in the battle without asking for it to end: praying for strength rather than for relief.
- Sarah Flower Adams The longing to draw near, using what hurts as a step.
- Scholastique Prayer that obtains more by love than by force, the boldness of trust.
- Séraphin de Sarov Paschal joy as the climate of an entire life, the fruit of long hidden prayer.
- Serge de Radonège Seeking God in solitude, serving unity through humility.
- Sigrid Undset The long search for truth through one's work, unto prayer without deceit.
- Silouane de l'Athos To pray for all people, even one's enemies, and to hold on to hope at the very edge of despair.
- Simone Weil Pure attention as the very form of prayer, and solidarity with the affliction of others.
- Sisoès le Grand To begin again each day, never supposing one has arrived.
- Socrate le Scolastique Peace kept in the face of difference: what varies from church to church is not what saves.
- Sojourner Truth Talking to God as to someone (plainly, out loud) and truly expecting something of him.
- Solanus Casey The trust that gives thanks in advance, and the patient welcome of one who listens at the door.
- Sophrony d'Essex The descent into the hell of despair carried through into light, and the name of God held in the depth of the heart.
- Søren Kierkegaard Prayer that listens: to fall silent long enough to stop speaking and hear God.
- Stefan Wyszyński Firmness without bitterness; the patience of a man who counts in decades rather than in victories.
- Susanna Wesley Prayer held amid domestic noise, a space kept for God when nothing is quiet.
- Syméon le Nouveau Théologien The living experience of God as light, offered to all and not to the perfect alone.
- Synclétique d'Alexandrie The dry beginnings of prayer: smoke that stings the eyes before the fire catches.
- Teresa de Cartagena The prayer of one who hears nothing from outside any more, and finds that silence is not a wall.
- Théodore Stoudite Prayer held inside a timetable, like work that is not put off.
- Théodoret de Cyr Consolation written to someone one actually knows, and dispossession quietly kept up for twenty-five years.
- Théophane le Reclus The patience of one who accompanies; prayer learned the way one learns to breathe.
- Thérèse Couderc Surrendering oneself: a handing over of self deeper than devotion, learned in hiddenness.
- Thérèse d’Avila Interiority as a place of indestructible peace.
- Thérèse des Andes Joy as witness: a God real enough to make one happy, even behind a grille.
- Thomas a Kempis Preferring to feel rather than to define, and finding a hidden life enough.
- Thomas Becket Not leaving the place where one has been set, even knowing what is coming.
- Thomas Cranmer Praying in words anyone can say, and coming back after giving way.
- Thomas d'Aquin Prayer that surpasses knowledge: to seek God with all one's mind, then to fall silent before him.
- Thomas Ken A day bounded by two prayers, and the polite refusal that costs a man his office.
- Thomas Merton The search for God in silence, and the desire to please him even when the way stays dark.
- Thomas Traherne Wonder recovered after childhood, as a form of thanksgiving.
- Tikhon de Zadonsk Gentleness born of inner trial, and forgiveness given as one has received it.
- Titus Brandsma Resisting by the truth, keeping Jesus near even in the cell.
- Úrsula de Jesús What the one who serves can see, and was never once asked about.
- Venance Fortunat Praise sung while walking, holding up what words alone could not hold.
- Véronique Giuliani Love that lets itself be found at the end of the night, and the humble obedience that tells what it would rather have hidden.
- Vittoria Colonna Changing your subject once you discover what is worth singing.
- Wang Zhiming The faithfulness that will not be bent, and hands kept pure for God alone.
- Watchman Nee The prayer of weakness: to stop relying on oneself and let Christ live within us.
- William Law The devotion that reaches all of ordinary life, down to work and the use of money.
- William Tyndale Receiving the words of prayer in one's own language, and discovering that God needs no interpreter.
- Xénia de Saint-Pétersbourg Carrying another's name before God; the freedom of those with nothing left to defend.
- Yared l'Éthiopien Raising praise through song, praying with the voice of a people.
- Yohanan ben Zakkaï What remains when the holy place is destroyed: study, prayer, and kindness given back.
- Zita de Lucques Holiness in work nobody watches; service kept without bitterness.