Good Advice on Prayer

Courtesy of Memoirs of a Neophyte (formerly "Memoirs of a Catechumen"; congratulations!):

[O]ne could pray any where, any time - but contemplative prayer was another thing altogether. He suggested that one read the lives of the saints, or the Bible before prayer. If one's eyes were tired, then perhaps one could listen to a few hymns before that. In any case, one had to get one's mind prepared for listening. One may think that one is not making any progress when one does not hear Him, but one is. Do not imagine that He'll shout in your ear - remember that God met Elijah in a small whisper of a voice instead of earth-shaking phenomena.

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