Prayer is about the relationship between God and the person. The dialogue betwenn the human being and God is called prayer. For St. Paul of the Cross, when we pray, we dialogue with the Crucified God on the Cross.  This dialogue sets up a love-relationship between God and the person. In Passion-Prayer the focus of this love-relationship is always the Crucified God. This prayer describes time spent at the foot of the cross. Prayer becomes loving attentiveness to the suffering Jesus. The result is to be shaped in the image of the Crucified Christ.

 In the first stage the emphasis is on intellectual and imaginative reflection on the events of Christ's Passion. The story of the Passion is read and re-read and one's understanding is stirred by such questions as: Who is it that suffers, Why does he suffer, for whom does He suffer? Reflecting in this way the Passion has an inherent power to gradually open the heart to love of Christ Crucified.

As this love grows meditation fades into the background. The affections begin to predominate.  Prayer becomes loving attentiveness to the suffering Lord. Love, thankfulness, praise, sorrow, petition are the cries from the heart of the one who stands at the foot of the Cross. This is the second phase of the prayer relationship.

As the affections, under God's action, give way to union the person is plunged into Christ Crucified. Love for the wounded Christ, and sorrow for his sufferings mingle and become one movement of the heart. The person in loving sorrow and sorrowful love is immersed in the sea of sorrow and ocean of love that is the Passion of Jesus. Love and sorrow blend. It is all one in union with the One on the Cross. This is the stage of contemplation.