Prayer begins before you do

You can measure prayer by your ability to concentrate, choose words, or produce affections. If you arrive tired, it seems like you have nothing to offer and that the encounter fails before even beginning. The initiative, however, belongs to God. The desire to pray, the word received, and the very possibility of presenting yourself are born inside an earlier grace. You respond to a presence that already sustains you. This does not eliminate the effort of preparing time and silence. It changes its meaning: you do not manufacture an encounter, you come to it. Even poverty can become a response if you surrender it with truth. Beginning by saying "here I am because you call me" shifts attention from your performance toward the faithfulness of the one who was waiting.