"Prayer life" is life-filled-with-prayer-that-is-full-of-life. We might be expecting falsely that we should be praying machines rattling upward an endless drone of noises, every tone perfect in symmetry. Jesus cautions about exactly this in Matthew 6:7, "But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do: for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking." Prayer should be alive and life-like, full of our real selves driven by honesty and emotion and candor and our natural inconsistencies.
My Lord loves me the way that I am which is how I am now, plus the potential that He sees in me. This He found worth dying for. No matter if sometimes I feel He should have saved himself the trouble. Prayer is simply talking to God.
I have an inconsistent personality - I can't seem to do the same thing the same way on any two occasions in a row. You may be surprised then when I tell you that my best prayer weapon is the rosary. This is one of the greatest little gifts handed down through the generations of our Church. I'll say up front I do not understand the rosary... I accept the rosary. I have yet to fathom how it works. I know that it puts me in a prayer mode when I can't get my prayers going. I know when I have failed God or feel distant from Him, it pulls me back so we can talk again. It is a great vehicle for shared prayer and a real help when being assaulted by those temptations not to pray.
O Lord, You are so merciful and good to me.
Thank you for seeing the good in me
even when I can not see it myself.
Thank you for your Holy Spirit that guides me,
enabling me to believe even when I don't understand.
Thank you for your Church that teaches me the Truth
and gives me the room to grow
and brings me into contact with others
with whom I can share Your love.
Bless all who seek to know You more
and to love You more.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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