St. Theophan the Recluse: Preparing to pray

To transform our saying of prayers into a real education in prayer, they must be said in such a way that both heart and mind absorb their content. So that you may achieve this I will give you three simple instructions:

• First, do not start to pray without at least some brief preparation.
• Second, do not perform your prayer carelessly, but do so with attention and feeling.
• Third, do not return to your usual occupations immediately [after] you have finished praying.

Although prayer is a habitual action for us, it needs preparation. For anyone who knows how to read and write, what is more usual than reading and writing? Yet if we sit down to read or write we do not do so suddenly, we first get ourselves into the mood for what we are going to do. This kind of preparation is all the more necessary before we start to pray, particularly if our occupation beforehand was very different from prayer.
So, morning or evening, immediately before you begin to repeat your prayers, stand awhile, sit for a while, or walk a little and try to steady your mind and turn it away from all worldly activities and objects. After this, think who He is to whom you turn in prayer, then recollect who you are; who it is who is about to start this invocation to Him in prayer. Do this in such a way as to wake in your heart a feeling of humility and reverent awe that you are standing in the presence of God.
All preparation for prayer consists in this reverent standing in the presence of God. To achieve this is a small task but one not to be ignored. It is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the complete task.
+St. Theophan the Recluse, from The Path of Prayer, Four Sermons on Prayer, the first sermon, A Personal Rule of Prayer