Prayer-talk is primary religious language, the language of religious experience. . . . Liturgy is play, liturgy is repetitious; when you play, when you worship, you use language in a caressing manner. It has the same sort of expression as that kind of language by which one caresses the person dear to one. That is proper, since the ultimate aim of our whole existence is to praise God, glorify and enjoy God forever. Liturgy has a caressing function: its language is a love language.
— Krister Stendahl, When in Doubt, Sing by Jane Redmont