"True prayer is something that must be a response to God.  What I mean is that we can 'say prayers' if we like, and this is good.  We can initiate 'prayers.'  But there is a difference between 'true prayer' and 'prayers that are said.'  True prayer is when God, by an action of the Holy Spirit, speaks to us and draws us by an interior calling.  God the Holy Spirit takes the initiative by way of an invitation.  And we, on our part, respond.  We respond to God calling and speaking, and this begins a process of prayer.  Prayer is communication with God, and the ultimate form of communication we are called to have with God in prayer is surrender and love.  It is in this high form of prayer that we discover God acting in our lives and transforming us.  And this is an action of the Holy Spirit." Pope Francis

True prayer allows us to be in God's presence, invited by God, just to be with him.  Words are not needed. As Saint John Cardinal Henry Newman once said: prayer is heart speaking to heart. The language of the heart is love. I know my beloved and my beloved knows me. Saying prayers of adoration, praise and thanksgiving can prime the pump, but it is in the silence of the heart that we enter into and remain in awe of the living God.