Wedged in between interpretations of brief passages from Aquinas' introduction to his commentary on the Psalms and Johann Georg Hamann's Entkleidung und Verklärung, this essay argues that Israel's conception of God (which North American culture is poorly equipped to appreciate) must determine the fundamental form of prayer. This basic form is: the offering up to God, in praise and entreaty, of the whole world as well as of ourselves, along with all of our historic experience.