Praying is not easy.

In my opinion, it is harmful and disorienting for Christians to claim that praying is easy, as easy as talking to a father or a mother, or a friend. I understand that it might be easy to pray some oral prayer, some communal prayers, a shotgun prayer, or make a superficial connection with God. But go deep into the unfathomable mysteries of God, to acquire and use psychological skills to grow in grace, to adapt this growth to the variability of the human personality, to climb ever higher up the dark and steep slope of God’s of demands to a transforming union with God… complete this process is hopelessly long and challenging. Coming to the depths of life with God is the most complex and challenging workman can do. Praying is not easy.

Grace offers an unlimited range of possibilities, from zero to infinity. Not all men have been given the same development ability; not all will be provided the exact requirements, each according to the measure of the gifts they have been given. The problem is, of course. No one can say I was given these abilities, so that I will produce that result. Only God is the giver; only He has His standards. We must be utterly faithful without thinking hard about how much we have been given and what we have to pay back. Be that as it may if we pray little and without perseverance and discipline, we cannot expect any strong experience of God; we can expect neither life-changing nor dazzling advances.

Prayer is a skill while prayer is a work of grace, it is also a skill and, as
such is subject on a psychological level to the norms of any teaching in any human endeavor. Prayer, therefore, requires a method, order, and discipline. In a word, a professional procedure. I understand that God can reveal even to a simple country woman through special inspired graces, inscrutable insights of the mysteries of his being, and his love without the need for any special procedures. But these graces, we do not earn or receive these graces. “They are given.” beyond all calculation and logic because they are free. Without grace, no amount of action will accomplish anything. On the contrary, however, I have been able to observe many times and first hand, that even vital professionals, people gifted with extraordinary abilities, had remained
in the first stages of life with God, lacking effort and discipline, when in fact they “got” the wings and the fuel with which they could reach extraordinary heights.

Think of how many years, how much energy, methods, and pedagogies are required in any human formation: painter, composer, professional and technical worker. If prayer is, among other things, a skill, let us not imagine illusions that a high level of life with God can be achieved without energy, order, and method. However, we are certainly counting on teacher number one, who can throw all forms overboard, introduce us to the most amazing truths, and skip all the laws of psychology and pedagogy. But usually, God respects the developmental laws of life, just as he does in the case of the mustard seed: it is a tiny seed, almost invisible. It is sown. It flows days, weeks pass, and seemingly nothing happens. But after a while, it begins. Something like the germ of a plant that can’t be seen, months go by, the plant grows and grows until it’s a thick bush that sprouts branches so large that birds can nest in its shade (cf. Mark 4:30-33).
This long developmental process is valid for all life, for growth in prayer, in fraternal life, so that in our lives to model the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.