Praying in the Inner Room with the Door Shut

Above all, however, we ought to keep most carefully the command of the gospel that tells us to go into our inner room, shut the door, and pray to our Father. We can fulfill it in this way. We pray within our room when we draw our hearts inward, away from the din of all thoughts and anxieties, and lay our prayers open to the Lord in secret and in closest intimacy. We pray with the door shut when, with closed lips and complete silence, we pray to the one who searches not words but hearts. We pray in secret when, from the heart and with a fervent mind, we lay our requests before God alone, so that no hostile powers can even discover what kind of thing we are asking. That is why we should pray in complete silence. We do so not only to avoid distracting the brothers standing near us with our whispers or louder words, and disturbing the thoughts of those who are praying, but also to hide the drift of our request from our enemies, who are especially on the watch against us while we pray. So we will fulfill this command: “Keep the doors of your mouth from her who sleeps in your bosom.” [a]