Attention is the essence of prayer

“What you want to be like at the time of prayer,” the Desert Fathers used to say, “you should be like that the whole time.” So there’s a question there which everyone has to face and answer for themselves on the kind of life, the kind of habits, that we may have got into. But ultimately, we have to be able to face those distractions with a sense of detachment. With that detachment, comes the essence of prayer which is attention, learning to pay attention with our whole being: not just thinking, not just with our minds, but with our whole being – body in stillness, mind in still fidelity, and spirit.

( Aspects of Love 1, by Laurence Freeman )