There is a rhythm to prayer that never allows us to be content focused totally inward or outward. As soon as we become somewhat content with an inner spiritual connection with God, we are jolted back into the real world, with its poverty, need, and oppression. And then when we have made up our minds to reach out and save the world we are reminded that I, alone, cannot solve the world’s problems. Prayer challenges us to imagine a world other than the one in which we live. Prayer pushes us out into the street. And prayer reminds us that human action, alone, will not be enough.