Last week I was in touch with Bishop Dominic who had been Bishop of Monmouth and who had ordained me. We shared a number of things, as we periodically do, including the joy of growth of numbers at Ty Mawr Convent . It is so encouraging and to see people committing their lives to God and exploring serving in an enclosed community committed to contemplative prayer. I have to say it is a wonderful place to spend time, to pray and be held in prayer there and is a special place for me personally.
A place of prayer could be anywhere that is special, whether church, nook, garden etc It isn't about countless words, though of course can be. It is about being open and not closed up. It is about thankfulness and praise. It is private and personal and it is embracing and corporate.
"Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us,
choosing gratitude until we are grateful,
and praising God until we ourselves are an act of praise." Richard Rohr.
“Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both Him and ourselves in the light of His infinite truth and moves us to ask Him for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help that we all need… It is therefore a deep and vital contact with Him…” —Thomas Merton
“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence… we need silence to be able to touch souls.” —Mother Theresa