... [P]rayer
is fasting. When we pray, consciously or unconsciously, we make room for Christ's indwelling and the Spirit's work. In conscious still-prayer we gently exclude every conscious preoccupation in our lives: activities, thoughts, distractions. We are saying no to ourselves in order to say yes to God, so that Mercy may indwell and change us; we are gaining control of our desires so that in the moment when God kindles us into flame we will be able to lose control, to yield entirely, and not run in terror in the opposite direction.
Thus we can say that fasting, rightly understood, is prayer, the famous 'practice of the presence of God,' or heartfulness, an opening of our hearts to the full light of God, awareness of God at every moment in our deepest being.
- Maggie Ross, The Fire of Your Life, 'February'
