Prayer: The breath and life of the spirt

A few years back there was a book that came out from an evangelical author I quite enjoy named Shane Claiborne. The book was titled: Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers. Something about that title made me uncomfortable. It reminded me of a time when a friend said to me that her good works were her prayer.
But that seemed quite foolish. We do not say within a marriage, that the money we bring home and the kids we raise and the chores we do around the house are conversation and communion with our spouse. Why then do we often replace conversation and communion with God in prayer with various other tasks? I have found a section within the book, The Way of a Pilgrim that may bring some insight. May it bring you to and instill in you a desire to commune with God in prayer:

Many people reason the wrong way round, thinking that good actions and all sorts of preliminary measures render us capable of prayer. But quite the reverse is the case. it is prayer which by bears fruit in good works and all the virtues. Those who reason so take, incorrectly, the fruits and the results of prayer for the means of attaining it, and this is to depreciate the power of prayer. And it is quite contrary to holy scripture, for the Apostle Paul says, "exhort therefore that first of all supplications be made" (1 Tim. 2:1). The first thing laid down in the Apostle's about prayer is that the work of prayer comes before everything else: "I exhort therefore the first of all..." The Christian is bound to perform many good works, but before all else what he ought to do is to pray, for without prayer no other good work whatever can be accomplished. Without prayer he cannot find the way to the Lord, he cannot understand the truth, he cannot crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, his heart cannot be enlightened with the light of Christ, he cannot be savingly united to God. None of those things can be effected unless they are preceded by constant prayer..."Capture the mother, and she will bring her children," said St. Isaac the Syrian. Learn first to acquire the power of Prayer and you will easily practice all other virtues.