I really like Merton, and loved his Seven Story Mountain. I think we can learn a lot about prayer from him. ." Our praying to God is God praying in us. Our lives and God's life are so intertwined that loving God is God loving God's own self in us. Prayer is waking up to this reality, coming to a new consciousness of God's in-dwelling presence. "We become contemplatives," Merton wrote, "when God discovers himself in us." So God does not desire that we become anything other than the true self which God has loved from all eternity. This quote is what resonates with me, it is such a mystery, how God comes to us first, and when we receive Him and are open to His movement in us...that is the relationship. He initiates...we respond. It amazes me to think about it, and is way beyond my brain power, yet I strive to be awake to it.