At the apex of his consciousness, a human being is alone. This solitude can feel strange, unfamiliar and heavy. People who are unwise try to escape the heavy feeling of this solitude by means of diversions, and they immediately descend from this highest point to the lowest; wise people keep themselves at this height by prayer.
Our relationship to God, the one that he desires from us, is the constant realization of his will. But the interests of life, our passions, are constantly pulling us away from it. And so, having realized this, we resort to the external, verbal expression of our relationship to God, to prayer, trying to evoke in ourselves a living consciousness of our dependence on God. Such prayer reminds us of our sins and our duties, and it saves us from temptations if, in the moment of temptation, we are able to evoke within ourselves a prayerful sentiment.
A person is a limitation, and therefore God, no matter how one understands him, is not a person. And yet, prayer is an appeal to God.
So how can one appeal to what is impersonal?
Astronomers know that what moves in their field of vision is not the stars of the celestial firmament, but the Earth, upon which they stand with their observatory and telescope. However, it is not the movements of the Earth that they record, but the movements of the stars. There is no other way. It is the same with prayer. God is not a person. But I am a person, and thus I cannot express my relationship to God in any other way than to a personal God, even though I know that he cannot be a person.
A human being hopelessly trapped in a mine, freezing in ice, starving at sea or in solitary confinement or simply dying, deaf and blind—how could such a human being live the remainder of his life if there was no prayer?
How good it is for a person when, wearied and exhausted by his searches for the good in worldly life, he stretches out his hands towards God.
— Pascal
A human being can live without prayer only if either he has been completely overpowered by his passions, or if the whole of his life is a service to God. But for a human being who is battling his passions and who is still far away from fulfilling that which he considers his duty, prayer is a necessary condition of life.
