Prayer deepens your experience with God and heightens your experience with yourself...

Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe God answers prayers often and 33% claim to have had a religious or mystical experience.

"The man who says his prayers in the evening is a captain posting his sentries," explained French poet Charles Baudelaire. "After that, he can sleep."

Spiritual psychologist, writer, and lecturer Marianne Williamson (1952-) was born on this day in Houston, Texas. Her first book, A Return to Love (1992), spent 35 weeks on the best-seller lists and was based on principles from Helen Schucman's divine message from Jesus, A Course In Miracles (1975), mixed with tenets from Christianity, Judaism, Eastern religions, and her own experiences.

"Our Kingdom is our life and our life is our Kingdom. And we are all meant to rule from a glorious place," wrote Williamson, who has lectured on spirituality, peace, and love since 1983.

She described prayer as a practical way to create a sweeter, more abundant life. "Through prayer we find what we cannot find elsewhere: a peace that is not of this world."

Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky likewise observed, "Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education."

More Marianne WILLIAMSON Quotations

Pray.