Jesus has become our Way, our Truth and our Life because he declined to have any way of his own, any truth or reality of his own, only the Father's.

On our side prayer is simply being there: open, exposed, inviting God to do all God wants. Prayer is not our activity, our getting in touch with God, our coming to grips with or making ourselves desirable to God. We can do none of these things, nor do we need to, for God is there ready to do everything for us, loving us unconditionally.

It is terrifying, this immense sea that is God. What will he do with us? Where will he carry us? He is Abba, says ,Jesus. Fear not, trust him.

When we find ourselves dissatisfied or anxious about our prayer it is worth asking ourselves the question: `What do I really want?' and trying to listen honestly to the answer. We can be fairly certain that it will be some kind of ego-satisfaction.

Put simply: we must strive to acquire an intellectual knowledge of him, of his attitudes, values and teaching. This intellectual knowledge is certainly not intimacy, certainly not a `knowing Jesus', but it is an indispensable ingredient for intimacy and real knowing.

To acknowledge that we have absolute need of the mediator, Jesus, means a practical acceptance of the fact that, to attain to God, we must die with Jesus: not of ourselves, or by ourselves, but `in him'. I must enter into his death. This death is a death to my self-centredness and self-possession. It is an ecstasy: a going right out of myself to be

All that is most important about us happens at a level below consciousness. So real prayer, prayer in its very essence, escapes our direct consciousness.

Friends of God? Can it be? Yes. But there is only one way: by becoming `son'; by accepting the friendship and companionship of Jesus so as to learn sonship from him and share in his sonship. In practice this means being utterly unimportant to ourselves, becoming selfless and empty, nothing but an echo -

The significance of the cross is not suffering but obedience: doing the Father's will regardless of whether it is easy or hard.