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II. A Definition of Prayer
1. What Prayer is Not efore attempting a wide definition of prayer, and to help us find out what prayer is, we should begin by saying what it is not. Methods and advice can help us in prayer - we shall come back to them a little later - but they do not, in themselves, constitute prayer.
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Reading a book, spiritual reading, the Bible, etc., or thinking about God, these are not prayer. Praying for the world, for those dear to us, practising devotions, (for example saying the Rosary or the litanies of the Sacred Heart), all this does not mean that we live in prayer. These things can help us to grow in the habit of praying, but in themselves they are not prayer. We do not intend to run down or devalue these different forms of prayer. We are trying to free prayer from all that obscures its meaning. So, what is prayer? 8