One may ask why prayer is used, if it is in our own power to have success or failure. It is in our own hands to say a prayer or not to say a prayer; it is doing our work. Prayer is a certain kind of work. We are doing it; if we did not do it, it would not be.

Prayer from the depth and prayer from the surface are two prayers. One can utter what Christ has called "vain repetitions", just repeating the prayer; one does not fix one's mind on the meaning of the prayer.

If the depth of one's heart has heard the prayer, God has heard it, because God hears through the ears of man. When man prays, through his own ears God hears it.

A person not capable of praying so deeply, can learn to pray deeply by practice, as a person who is not able to draw a straight line, by drawing a straight line a hundred times, a thousand times, will get accustomed to drawing it; so it is with prayer.