Anyone who wishes to pray must choose not only the right place but also the right time. A time of leisure is best and most convenient, the deep silence when others are asleep is particularly suitable, for prayer will then be freer and purer. ‘Arise at the first watch of the night, and pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord, your God’. How secretly prayer goes up in the night, witnessed only by God and the holy angel who received it to present it at the heavenly altar!
Bernard of Clairvaux
