"I hope that this book will reveal the authentic Christian character of prayer: an interior outpouring of the spirit in an intimate conversation with the God whom we know and love as our Father and who loves us as his children. In other words, prayer, whether it be individual or collective, interiorly or exteriorly expressed, means an attitude of love and excludes any idea of obligation or exchange. This is the prayer that is to be here the subject of loving meditation--not a tedious duty but a source of joy, the one true joy, overflowing and unsurpassable, which all the saints have experienced. My wish is that those readers who know nothing of this prayer may gain from this book a growing awareness of its wonderful and inspiring possibilities." [Introduction].