On Hearing

"The immediate person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continuesto pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God wills. The immediate person, therefore, uses many words and, therefore makes demands in his prayer; the true man of prayer only attends."
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Danish theologian