Mental prayer (Christianity)

This type of prayer is personal and individual; it has the aim of awakening the Holy Spirit within the individual and bringing the heart into harmony with Him, so that it is the Holy Spirit praying through the individual's voice and affections. The individual is then, as far as possible, conscious of this prayer in the heart. The difficulty is that, while nothing should be said in mental prayer that is not sincerely meant, it is sometimes difficult to fix the attention on God, the mind is full of distractions which possess the heart, and prayer is started from routine rather than from desire to pray. Here the need is to admit the fact, to be humble and to recognize the need for effort. There may then be the arising of compunction, which can transform prayer from a cold formality, with the emphasis on one's self, to a living act, bringing one's self into a real, spiritual and personal relationship with God face to face, the I-Thou relationship.