Behind the closed door with me

My son, my daughter, I don't need an audience to hear you. You can close the bedroom door, turn down the noise of the house, switch off the screen, and there, alone, find me. Many people think prayer needs pretty words spoken in front of others. I prefer the silence of your room at three in the afternoon, the car stopped at a red light, the bathroom door locked after a hard day.

You don't have to perform faith for me. I've already seen your hidden tears, already heard what you couldn't even put into a sentence. And it's exactly there, in secret, that I work deepest. Praying alone, with no one else knowing, isn't shameful — it's intimacy.

Today I invite you: set apart a place, even a small one, that's just ours. It doesn't have to be long. It has to be real. And what's born in secret with me, I myself carry out into the light of your life.