'Short prayers pierce heaven.' A single urgent syllable — the word you'd actually shout in a crisis — cuts through faster than a long, mindless recitation. In an emergency no one says a two-syllable word; they burst out with one. Urgency and brevity are the same thing: the short, whole, full-hearted utterance beats the long, checked-out one every time.

— In our words · Source: The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous (14th-century English contemplative))