On Prayer

I now feel every day the necessity of praying, of asking
God's aid.
This necessity is natural (at least to those of us who
have been accustomed to it from childhood), and I think
it is natural to all men.
To feel one's weakness and to seek outside aid, that is,
not merely through a struggle with evil, but to try to
find methods by which it would be possible to vanquish
evil, this is called praying.
To pray does not mean to employ methods which
deliver one from evil, but among the methods which deliver
there is also the action which is called prayer.
The peculiarity of prayer, as compared with all other
methods, consists in this, that it is agreeable to God.
If this is true, then, in the first place, the question
arises why prayer, that is, an action which is pleasing to
God and saves me from evil, must be expressed in words
only, or in obeisances, which do not last long, as is generally
assumed. Why can prayer not be expressed by
continuous motions of the body, say of the feet only,
the wandering of the pilgrim is a prayer of the feet,
and if I go and work a whole day or a whole week for a
poor widow, will this be prayer ?
I think it will.
Remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan, "Men
must worship God in spirit and in truth." The true
translation for " in truth " is " by deeds."

Tolstoy