Though we begin the practice of secret prayer with a strong sense that we are the initiators and that by our wills we are establishing our habits, maturing experience brings awareness of being met, and tutored, purged and disciplined, simplified and made pliant in His
holy will by a power waiting within us.

For God Himself works in our souls, in their deepest depths, taking increasing control as we are progressively willing to be prepared for
his wonder. We cease trying to make ourselves the dictators and God the listener, and become the joyful listeners to Him, the Master who
does all things well. -Thomas R Kelly

God speaks to those who are still enough to listen. -Anonymous

The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better
you will hear what is sounding outside. And only she who listens can
speak. -Dag Hammerskjold

In prayer we express deep penitence and contrition for our shortcomings, using sorrowful and self-accusing words.  And this often in all sincerity.  But, at other times, we are not
really much disturbed about it; or, at least, not nearly so much as our heaped-up language would imply.  What we imagine that we are achieving through this unreality I do not know.  We shall not fool the All-wise; nor induce Him to believe that we are anything other, or better, than we actually are!  Were it not saner to tell Him the truth, exactly as it is -- not that
we are overwhelmed with sorrow for our sinfulness, if it is not so; but rather this, that, to all our other sinfulness, we have added this last and crowning sinfulness, that we are not much worried about it, or, at least, not nearly as much as we ought to be.  Be pleased, in pity, to grant us such measure of sorrow for our failures as will lead us to a true repentance; and, through that, to a new way of life.
                ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), 
      In the Secret Place of the Most High [1947]

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 2003, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator
    http://www.gospelcom.net/cqod

"...No matter how many times we hear what it costs to follow Christ, we're still shocked when the bill comes, and we wonder all over again if we can pay it.  If we make an act of faith then, it counts more than on the days when we feel sure."-from the novel "Lying Awake" by Mark Salzman, p. 175

All outward power that we exercise in the things about us is but a shadow in comparison of that inward power that resides in our will, imagination, and desires; these communicate with eternity and kindle a life which always reaches either Heaven or hell...  Here lies the ground of the great efficacy of prayer, which when it is the prayer of the heart, the prayer of faith, has a kindling and creating power, and forms and transforms the soul into everything that the desire reaches after: it has the key to the Kingdom of Heaven and unlocks all its treasures; it opens, extends and moves that in us which has its being and motion in and with the divine nature. and so it brings us into real union and Communion with God."  

-William Law, An Appeal to All that Doubt, 1740

    "Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at home; but he needs his mother more than his dinner.  Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer...  So begins a
communion, a talking with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases.  We must ask that we may receive; but that we
should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God's end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to His knee, God
withholds that man may ask."-George MacDonald (1824-1905), "The Word of Jesus on Prayer"

 "In prayer, one must hold fast and never let go because the one who gives up loses all. If it seems that no one is listening to you, then cry out even louder. If you are driven out of one door, go back in by the other. If you are told, as was the Canaanite woman, that you do not deserve the grace for which you are asking, then reply like her that you are not asking unusual favors, but are hoping only to eat the crumbs which fall from the divine table." - Jane Frances de Chantal