"Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life." 
~St. John Chrysostom~
 

The Fruits of True Prayer

Prayer is doxology, praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, and intercession to God. "When I prayed I was new," wrote a great theologian of Christian antiquity, "but when I stopped praying I became old." Prayer is the way to renewal and spiritual life. Prayer is aliveness to God. Prayer is strength, refreshment, and joy. Through the grace of God and our disciplined efforts prayer lifts us up from our isolation to a conscious, loving communion with God in which everything is experienced in a new light. Prayer becomes a personal dialogue with God, a spiritual breathing of the soul, a foretaste of the bliss of God's kingdom.

As we pray deeply within our hearts we grow in prayer. By the grace of God, we suddenly catch a glimpse of the miracle of the presence of the Holy Spirit working within us. At first, it is only a spark but later it becomes a flame freeing and energizing our whole being. To experience the fire of God's holy love, to give it space within us to do its cleansing and healing work as a breath of the Holy Spirit, and to use it as light and power for daily living -- such are the goals as well as the fruits of true prayer.

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Source: From the website of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America