St. Teresa of Avila, a Doctor of the Church, defines prayer as friendship with God. This saint teaches us, from her own prayer experience, that praying is not an exchange of words, but of your inner self. This helps me realize that God is with me and I am with God. It teaches that to walk the path of prayer is to follow God who loves us so much.  Prayer is the door to know God and to know oneself, and is therefore an exercise of love.

St. Teresa also teaches us that praying is not restricted to a specific moment of prayer, but that this meeting of friendship leads us to a questioning of life and consequent transformation. Life and prayer question each other in the sense that in prayer we know our own truth and are challenged and confronted with it. Therefore, if we want to evaluate how the quality and authenticity of our prayer is going, just look at our life, our attitudes, and we will have the answer.

• Leonardo Damasceno
  Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (Brazil)