I have come to believe that prayer is not a matter of my calling in an attempt to get God’s attention, but of my finally listening to the call of God, which has been constant, patient, and insistent in my inner being. God is reaching out to me, speaking to me, and it is up to me to learn to be polite enough to pay attention. When I do have something to say to God, I am rendering a response to the divine initiative. So the question of whether or not and how God answers prayer seems to me bogus questions. God speaks, all right. The big question is do I answer, do I respond, to an invitation that is always open.

—Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Speech, Silence, Action!