Question 003

What do I need to begin to pray?

Your desire is itself your prayer.  And if your desire is continuous, then your prayer is continuous as well.

from St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions on Prayer by Fr. Ermatinger.

 

Like all labors in this life, the beginning of labor is first the desire to undertake the labor.  The labor of prayer is no different.  However, there is the tendency to complex prayer into a work that needs more effort to start than the simple attraction of the soul to begin the undertaking.  The hurdles of doubts about God and myriad other trepidations are in reality but shadows that get in the way of the desire.  And what is the desire but to obtain the good things of God?  Obtaining comes from asking comes from the desire to receive.  If you should continuously desire to receive, as opposed to even a passive desire not to receive at this moment, then the movement of the soul will begin to be continuous in prayer. — PPP

The Prayer Pierre Edouard Frère (1819–1886)