Jesus himself points out in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:5-8) when he’s giving his teaching on prayer – and meditation of course is based upon the teaching of Jesus on prayer – to go into your inner room, to close the door, to pray to the Father who is the ground of our being in that secret and holy place of our heart. That’s where the holiness of God is to be found: in the living centre of our being.
And then he tells us don’t go babbling on like the pagans who think that the more they say the more likely they are to be heard, magically trying to change God’s mind or tell God what he doesn’t know. That’s not what prayer essentially is. St Augustine said. Why do we put our prayers into words when we ask for something? Is it to tell God what God doesn’t know? If God is God, God knows. Is it to ask God to change his mind? No, God doesn’t really change his mind from day to day like we do.
( Christian Life in the Light of Christian Meditation 2, Laurence Freeman )
