As with any spiritual endeavor, however, the Christian must learn how to pray properly.

As with any spiritual endeavor, however, the Christian must learn how to pray properly.

As St. Tikhon of Zadonsk cautions us: 

Of no value is that prayer in which the tongue prays but the mind is empty; the tongue speaks, but the mind lies silent; the tongue calls God, but the mind wanders amongst created things. We must, therefore, pray in fear and trembling and try in every way to ensure that our minds are with our words, or, as St. John of the Ladder tells us, to enclose our mind in the words of our prayer, [so that] the heart may respond to the words of the prayers.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk