Speaking of prayer, we have been told that Franciscan prayer is primarily a prayer of the heart. St Francis certainly followed the instructions of the mother Church. In those days the canonical hours of prayer was given utmost importance in religious life. He did not down play the importance of it. But he emphasized the need for mental prayer, or prayer of the heart.

Yesterday while talking to a representation of the 2nd International Congress of Confraternities and Popular Piety that visited him, Pope Francis spoke to them about the importance of heartfelt prayer in families. He continued: "May it be heard as the resounding silence of a prayer that moves one to tears because it comes from the heart - weather before the image of the patron of your confraternity, who presides over your homes, before the Tabernacle of your parish or shrine, at the bedside of the sick, or in the company of the elderly"

When a prayer is from the heart, then sometimes there are no words, sometimes there are tears, and always there is love.

Prayer is seeing one's own littleness in the bright light of goodness and pure love of the Triune God.

Prayer is heartily being in the heart of God.

It is lovingly bringing another heart and placing it into the heart of God.

Prayer is being lost silently in the timelessness of God.