Prayer, Our Deepest Longing

Some time ago I listed this book, "Prayer, Our Deepest Longing" by Ronald Rolheiser under recent spiritual books on the right side of my blog. I found myself reading it again on Sunday and was struck by his definition of all private and devotional prayer as "prayer that tries, in myriad ways, to open us up in such a way that we can hear God say to us, 'I love you.'"
He goes on to say that prayer is about love. It is meant to establish friendship. And, he says, good friendship implies boldness. To reach the trust we need to be bold with God, we must first let Him touch our heart.
I think God wants us to listen to Him in the depths of our hearts, but also to talk to Him as one friend talks to another. I just learned of the death yesterday of a dear friend who had been in the novitiate with me. I have been talking to God about her and about the community she has left behind as it is always hard to lose a loved one, even when you know they are with God now and happy for all eternity.

This is not the picture I thought I was posting!