A warning about routine praying:

“We must discern whether prayer has not become for us a mechanical routine we are able to carry out to our own satisfaction just because it is mechanical, something like the way we carry out the daily exercise of cleaning our teeth. We don’t think about cleaning our teeth; we simply do it. If we routinize prayer in the same way, we don’t have to think seriously about it at all, but we can go through the day with a nice warm feelin inside telling ourselves and God, “I’ve said my prayers; I’ve done it.”

And an encouragement about routine praying:

“Good routine praying is not mechanical, a mere parroting of prayers, but is similar to the way that wise couples who live busy lives plan the time of day when they are going to talk about how the day has gone and just enjoy being together. Many who pray meaningfully have found it a wonderful help to schedule times with God and to plan in advance how they are going to us that time. It is like scheduling an afternoon where husband and wife will go for a walk together, where nobody will interfere, since there is a lot of stuff that they need to go over together and much they have to do for refreshing their relationship to each other. There is endless benefit to be gained from a regularly scheduled appointment for your time alone with your Lord and from planning ahead some of the ground that you will cover when you and he are alone together.”

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