I sometimes think we give too much importance to our outward attitude of prayer. We expect too much emotionally of ourselves, much more than God is asking for. God is only asking us to remember Him at all times, in good and bad periods to offer Him this moment of our time — this moment, not the following one. The present is what He asks; not in great gestures of surrender, but in a continual natural stream even as we breathe. The great moments will then be vouchsafed us by Divine grace when we are reaching for them, when prayer quickens into a life of its own and carries us with it to unexpected heights, and above all peace and joys. Prayer carries us — not we our prayer.
— Journal of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Ellwood City, PA