We humans have our hearts set on heaven, whether we realize it or not. We are made to commune with eternity, and our highest good is bound up with this calling. Yet we find prayer difficult and confusing, bland and boring. At least I do, more often than I care to admit. Why? 

The common culprit has, as ever, a hand in things: I am a fallen man. Though drawn towards heaven, I am entangled in the world. Pleasure enamours me, pain repulses me. I labor and toil for bread that perishes. Sin and death hang over my head and dwell in my heart. Heavenly splendor seems foreign and far away. 

I am not without aid. In desolation an Our Father or a Hail Mary are often all that I can muster, insincerely at that. Yet these prayers have been given to me, and who but the Lord knows the peril I have been rescued from by clinging to these eternal pillars? Alas, I am called to something higher than a blind and desperate plea. 

God wants me to talk to Him. I take this knowledge and run with it, proceeding to talk His ear off. And what do I blabber on about? Me. My wants, my desires. My confusion, my sinfulness, my need for heavenly aid. I talk and talk and talk and never stop to listen. I even make demands, foolish man that I am. And when this kind of prayer does not bear fruit, I grow frustrated and my fickle desire for prayer fades away. I am called to something higher than restless self-seeking. 

God is generous, and ever ready to bestow His grace. And so I must pray for others. I will never see the fruit of seeds sown by this prayer, and that is a good thing. For surely I would grow proud and think I had a hand in its flowering, as if it were not the Lord Who drew me to pray for someone else in the first place. Prayer directed outward is essential, but alone it is not sufficient. 

Though I tend to be selfish, I ought to pray for myself. It is precisely because I tend to be selfish that I must do so. I would be lying if I said I knew how to do this correctly. Learn to listen. Seek always humble surrender to the Lord’s will. Recognize the infidelity of your own heart. Honestly ask Him for help in making your aim solely to love Him alone. But above all give Him thanks and praise.

Thanks and praise. These are proper prayer to the Lord. These are what heaven consists of, eternally. These raise our soul above itself and into the Divine life. These I do not nearly enough. My highest calling is to give praise and thanksgiving to my Lord. I can only give this thanks and praise if His love draw it out of me. 

I must receive His love. He longs to give it. Prayer is pure when it is simple surrender to the overwhelming love of my Creator. I do not need to speak, I do not need to prove my penitence, all that is asked is that I be still and receive. I am made for communion with Love Himself.