St. Teresa of Avila

Quote from St. Teresa that I love "being with God without an agenda, being with God is the agenda."  Truly taking times of prayer to be with God, not worry about what you have to ask about, what you have to fix, what you may feel you need from Him. The thing I think is most evident in the fact that you are praying is that you need God. Therefore praying should just be, being with God, agenda-less meeting with God. That is what prayer  should look like, because He knows what we need better than we do. Looking on it in this I reflect on how prayer time should look, maybe opening in the things you feel you need or want to talk with God. Then giving the rest of the time to God, entering into a time of contemplation, more along the lines of what Merton talks about with the desert fathers, quies. Not a time to close your eyes and just rest, but rather a quieting of everything in order to listen. It is a intense way to calm your entire being in order to listen for the voice of God and what it is God wants for you. According to Merton quies was much less self involved and a truer giving of self to God in prayer. This deep prayer is St. Teresa's goal, no agenda just true relation and reception of God and His great Love for you. Then allowing you to respond in love to God, through praise and thanksgiving. The two-way street of prayer seems to be very unpopular these days, but in St. Teresa and the desert fathers you see into a world where they wanted more traffic coming from God, because they knew those were the most important messages they could receive.