On Prayer...

From "He Leadeth Me":

Because the restless human mind, our chief instrument in all human communications, is also our greatest stumbling block to prayer. It seems by nature bent upon distraction rather than on recollection. It prefers to be free, to wander ceaselessly...Relax the body and the mind goes running off to recreation. We are creatures of habit, and we can sometimes help ourselves achieve a sort of self-control that leads more readily to recollection by taking up a posture we traditionally associate with prayer. Such an effort, moreover, such perseverence is an earnest of our desire to respond to God's promptings and to do his will. An attitude of readiness to try over and over again in our quest to find God and his will in prayer is itself a grace and a blessing of major consequence.