1. Prayer is a way offered by the Holy Spirit to reach God. 2It is not merely a question or an entreaty. 3It cannot succeed until you realize that it asks for nothing. 4How else could it serve its purpose? 5It is impossible to pray for idols and hope to reach God. 6True prayer must avoid the pitfall of asking to entreat. 7Ask, rather, to receive what is already given; to accept what is already there.
2. You have been told to ask the Holy Spirit for the answer to any specific problem, and that you will receive a specific answer if such is your need. 2You have also been told that there is only one problem and one answer. 3In prayer this is not contradictory. 4There are decisions to make here, and they must be made whether they be illusions or not. 5You cannot be asked to accept answers which are beyond the level of need that you can recognize. 6Therefore, it is not the form of the question that matters, nor how it is asked. 7The form of the answer, if given by God, will suit your need as you see it. 8This is merely an echo of the reply of His Voice. 9The real sound is always a song of thanksgiving and of Love.
3. You cannot, then, ask for the echo. 2It is the song that is the gift. 3Along with it come the overtones, the harmonics, the echoes, but these are secondary. 4In true prayer you hear only the song. 5All the rest is merely added. 6You have sought first the Kingdom of Heaven, and all else has indeed been given you.
4. The secret of true prayer is to forget the things you think you need. 2To ask for the specific is much the same as to look on sin and then forgive it. 3Also in the same way, in prayer you overlook your specific needs as you see them, and let them go into God’s Hands. 4There they become your gifts to Him, for they tell Him that you would have no gods before Him; no love but His. 5What could His answer be but your remembrance of Him? 6Can this be traded for a bit of trifling advice about a problem of an instant’s duration? 7God answers only for eternity. 8But still all little answers are contained in this.
5. Prayer is a stepping aside; a letting go, a quiet time of listening and loving. 2It should not be confused with supplication of any kind, because it is a way of remembering your holiness. 3Why should holiness entreat, being fully entitled to everything Love has to offer? 4And it is to Love you go in prayer. 5Prayer is an offering; a giving up of yourself to be at one with Love. 6There is nothing to ask because there is nothing left to want. 7That nothingness becomes the altar of God. 8It disappears in Him.
6. This is not a level of prayer that everyone can attain as yet. 2Those who have not reached it still need your help in prayer because their asking is not yet based upon acceptance. 3Help in prayer does not mean that another mediates between you and God. 4But it does mean that another stands beside you and helps to raise you up to Him. 5One who has realized the goodness of God prays without fear. 6And one who prays without fear cannot but reach Him. 7He can therefore also reach His Son, wherever he may be and whatever form he may seem to take.
7. Praying to Christ in anyone is true prayer because it is a gift of thanks to His Father. 2To ask that Christ be but Himself is not an entreaty. 3It is a song of thanksgiving for what you are. 4Herein lies the power of prayer. 5It asks nothing and receives everything. 6This prayer can be shared because it receives for everyone. 7To pray with one who knows that this is true is to be answered. 8Perhaps the specific form of resolution for a specific problem will occur to either of you; it does not matter which. 9Perhaps it will reach both, if you are genuinely attuned to one another. 10It will come because you have realized that Christ is in both of you. 11That is its only truth.