When we begin life as little children, going to school, having to study a lot of subjects like geography, arithmetic, and maybe a foreign language, we cannot see the benefit. It s the same thing with prayer. But as we become older, just to reflect on the Our Father can be enough. Saints have written volumes just on what is contained in the Our Father. Prayer is meant to become a part of one s life, just as eating and sleeping become a part of one s life, because, unless a person has a direction and a goal in life, he or she cannot really plan or take charge of that life.
Spiritual growth is like the farmer sowing the seed.
We plant the seed. We plant it at the beginning of our lives. It comes to harvest and to maturity at the end off our lives. And it is God who determines really what the harvest will be. For our part, we have to keep sowing, to keep plowing, keep removing the spiritual weeds, so that the seeds of spiritual life can continue to grow and bear fruit.