"For prayer is a living encounter with a living God.  In prayer we are seeking to achieve a continuous state of recollection of and wakefulness to the reality and presence of God.  Prayer then is closely linked with knowledge.  But this knowledge is not a cold, intellectual knowledge.  It is what the Greek Fathers called theoria: a passionate, contemplative insight, involving communion and sharing.  Prayer is closely linked with, and inseparable from, theology.  So Evagrius in the fourth century defines a theologian as 'one whose prayer is true.'  Growth in prayer and growth in theology always go together.  Prayer and theology are concerned with the experience of God, with the point at which time and eternity meet."

--Kenneth Leech, True Prayer: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality