“All prayer begins with desire… At its best, desire in prayer is what Augustine calls an affectionate reaching out to God” (qting Ulanov, Primary Speech pg. 9).
Desire = “an inclination towards some object accompanied by a positive affect” (Websters).
The inclination at prayer is toward relating interpersonally with God, the objective reality outside ourselves is God who is love (1 John 4:16).
“If we really knew who it was who is addressing us affectively and offering us a conversation in the wellsprings of our heart’s desiring (John 4:10) we would drink in unreservedly, moved by our infinitely thirsty need to be satiated by Love (1 John 4:1-3).”
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