Prayer

Faith is never present as a matter of course; it must be lived. It leads us into a conversation with God that includes both speaking and hearing. Faith and prayer belong inseparably together. The time a priest spends in prayer and in hearing the word of God is never at the expense of his pastoral duties to the souls confided to his care. People can tell if the words and actions of their paster have their origin in prayer or only at his writing table. Above all else, he must encourage his parishioners to pray, teach them pray, and so commit them to God's care. Here, too, there is, of course, a question of mutual exchange. Every prayer is a prayer in common with the whole praying Church, and a true hearing of the word of God can take place only in common with the whole listening Church.

Joseph Ratzinger, Deutsche Tagespost, September 19, 1987

There is therefore no opposition between contemplation and mission. The notion that there would be, and that one would have to choose between them, is absurd. On the contrary, mission appears as the self-unfolding of contemplation... The idea that a contemplative would be someone perpetually lost in celestial space without any connection with the earth would be absolutely false from the perspective of Christian prayer. Christian prayer is not in the slightest degree a form of escape. On the contrary, it brings us ever more deeply into human life. It strives to bring the movement of God's love, the Spirit, into the thick and heavy dough of human existence in order to make it rise.

Jean Danielou, Prayer, pgs. 96-97.