Do not expect to find in your heart any remarkable gift of prayer Consider yourself unworthy of it-then you will find peace. Use the empty, cold dryness of your prayer as food for your humility. But say it calmly, without agitation. This humble prayer will be acceptable to God. You should not make long prayer, for it is better to pray little but often.
Superfluous words are idle talk.
Strive to render your mind deaf and dumb during prayer. Blessed is the mind which during prayer keeps itself wholly without image or fantasy. Do not rush one prayer after another but say them with orderly deliberation, as one addressing a great person for a favor. Do not just pay attention to the words, but rather let the mind be in the heart, standing before the Lord in full awareness of His presence, in full consciousness of His greatness and grace and justice. The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.