"If you knew the gift of God!" The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God's desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, page 674.

CNS photo/Debbie Hill Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York prays after placing a note at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in the Old City of Jerusalem Jan. 30, 2012.