For some people prayer appears to be useless and a waste of time. In reality, we can get a lot out of prayer: it gives us interior peace, relaxation and strength to live, it places us in an attitude of trust. It helps us to see clearer within ourselves. From it we draw comfort and hope.
It enables us to take a distance with regard to our problems and to see them in another light. It helps us to recentre ourselves on the essential and not get bogged down by what we are doing. Recollection is necessary for a quality of human life.
However, it is not a case of praying because it serves a purpose. Prayer is first of all a gratuitous step. It is seeking a relationship with God.

It is a form of our relationship with God, a friendly relationship with God, a heart to heart talk with Him. To pray is to love and let oneself be loved. In praying, we meet God just as two friends meet each other. It is an attitude of openness to someone who infinitely surpasses us. It is a step of disponibility and trust in God which leads to a clear and deep way of looking at the meaning of our life.
To pray, we must place ourselves in the presence of God, our heart open and disponible. In prayer we ask God to fill us with his presence. It disposes us to enter progressively into God’s plan.

Prayer can take very diverse forms: the prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise, reciting a prayer, the rosary, the way of the cross, the liturgical office, the Mass, meditation, reading the Bible, adoration. We can pray aloud or in our hearts, alone or with others.

We are often bothered by distractions, but we can sometimes use these to raise our hearts to God, making them the occasion of prayer. Distractions are often life which is surging up at the heart of prayer. In any case, God knows our weakness and is sensitive to our good will. He would prefer that we be distracted rather than absent.
When we are distracted, we must remind ourselves that the Holy Spirit dwells within us and prays in us. We can offer ourselves to God just as we are with our distractions.

It happens that we do not feel the presence of God, that we lack the taste for prayer, that it bores us. It is a difficult trial to bear, but the love of God is not only feeling. True love should go beyond the affective side. This trial is a path of purification in order to discover true love. Dryness in prayer is the time for perseverance. We can accept boredom … out of love. We must learn to listen to the silence of God.
Before speaking to God, we must listen to his word which He addresses to us under different forms and especially through the Bible. God speaks to us before we speak to Him. It is good to remain silent, in recollection before God who welcomes our simple and generous presence.
When we cannot find the words for prayer, we can recite a prayer or read the text of a prayer. Moreover, prayer is not necessarily formulated by words and sentences; it is above all a disposition of mind and heart which can also be expressed by gestures.

Our requests are always granted but not as we would like. When we say a prayer of petition, we must accept willingly that God does not always answer our prayer as we would wish. Be certain that God hears our prayer and gives us his help. The prayer of petition is first of all an expression of our needs but it only ends in opening us to trust.

We must first, before starting to pray, take the time to get into a settled position, a bodily attitude of prayer.
We can them begin the prayer by trying to place ourselves “in the presence of God”. We must empty ourselves in order to place ourselves before God. In fact, God is present in the heart of the human person and we need to concentrate on ourselves in order to find God. The silence necessary for prayer is first an interior silence.
It is good to ask humbly for the help of the Holy Spirit.

“… The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness; for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words; and He who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God’s holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God.” Rm 8: 26-27 

We can choose a suitable moment during the day and hold to it regularly. What time will I be most free? We must fix a rendez-vous with God and decide to dedicate a certain time each day to prayer. A certain regularity is important.
We can also seize on passing occasions in daily life in order to enable movements of thanksgiving or of supplication to be born in our hearts. Our prayer needs practical exterior helps: a text which touches us, a holy picture, the religious power of the flame of a candle, the warmth of prayer gatherings, the fervour of singing, the rosary, a prayer group, prayer with children in the family, etc. All of these can support our prayer and strengthen it. Each person can find what suits him/herself.