Connection to God
I have noticed that many people think of prayer as a periodic activity, but truly religious and spiritual people of whatever conviction view prayer as a continuous process. Formalized praying times are focused on specific, communal prayer activities. But other times, even stressful times, prayers run in the background like a tape, keeping God in mind and attached to the spiritual in each moment. That is the reason, I believe, for thrice daily formal Jewish prayers and 100 blessings a day. The 100 blessings force the religious Jew to constantly keep in mind whether the experience at hand demands a specific blessing, meaning always asking the question: In what way is this moment connected to God? Those who meditate maintain the same process, only differently, and often more individually than communally. Catholics and Jews have more formalized liturgies. But in all cases the connection to the divine is not a matter of on again off again, but, rather, more intense and in the foreground, less intense and in the background, a sine curve of connectivity to the ever present divine.