The key to controlling
thoughts during prayer is to attack the wandering mind immediately. The moment
you detect a stray thought, rise up, be strong and snuff it out. Be firm and
aggressive. It takes much effort.
Here is advice from Saint
Theophan:
Kindly read the 19th
discourse, concerning a Christian’s duty to force himself to do good. There it
is written, “One must force oneself to pray, even if one has no
spiritual prayer.” And, “In such a case, God, seeing that a man earnestly is
striving, pushing himself against the will of his heart (that is, his
thoughts), He grants him true prayer.” By true prayer, St. Macarius means the
undistracted, collected, deep prayer that occurs when the mind stands unswervingly
before God. As the mind begins to stand firmly before God, it discovers such
sweetness, that it wishes to remain in true prayer forever, desiring nothing
more
I have stated more than
once exactly what efforts must be made: Do not allow your thoughts to
wander at will. When they do involuntarily escape, immediately turn them
back, rebuking yourself, lamenting and grieving over
this disorder. As St. John of the Ladder says, "We must lock our mind
into the words of prayer by force."
When you have learned the
prayers by heart, as I suggested in my earlier letter, perhaps then you will
progress more smoothly.
The most helpful idea is
to attend church frequently. There, prayers come more readily because all
is directed to that end, but this is not very practicable for you. So, labor at
home to accustom yourself to pray attentively and try to remain in God’s
presence the rest of the time, as much as possible.
When memorizing the
prayers, do not forget to dig into the meaning and to experience
the feeling in each word. Then when you say the prayer, the words
themselves will hold your attention and warm you into a prayerful attitude.
from Letter 48
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