You can understand when people have reached a certain level in their prayer, when they have a deep desire to sit down with scripture, the gospels, or psalms and really be there with them. That urge is not only a grace from God but a grace whose time has come. A sad thing occurs when we don' t take up that challenge. Prayer does not replace scripture. Our prayer is really a new page of scripture.
Scripture is dynamic.
As long as I am in the dynamic with it, bringing real problems, dilemmas from my life to it, then I am actually contributing to this history of relationships between God and human. We often forget that the basis of prayer is an attitude of love. God's love for us is a key part. Contemplation is a gift first and foremost, a gift of love. We feel that prayer is just a technique, everything will fall into place, and that God will have to respond to me if I have set up the techniques right.