When you pray, go to your private room and, when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret, will reward you - Matthew 6,6

BEGIN by getting focussed. A person going into a supermarket will come out without what she went in for if she gets distracted and confused by all that's available. Beginning is a time for lighting a candle, playing some suitable music, maybe reading or singing a psalm or hymn. It is a time for seeking to notice something of what is going on in my heart. Am I happy? sad? fretful? etc

Phase two. Pause. Stand for the space of a prayer like the Our Father and, with mind and heart uplifted, consider how God our Lord is looking at me. God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances but Yahweh looks at the heart - 1Samuel 16, 7. The eyes of Yahweh rove to and fro across the world - 2Chron 16, 9. Express physically your appreciation of who God is who sees me. Moses before the burning bush covered his face - Exodus 3 ; Moslems and others kowtow. At the Good Friday worship the presiding prelates fall prostrate.

Phase Three. Preliminary prayer. Take up a position that suits. Request that during this prayer-time - brief as it is - you may respond in the way for which you were created and are held in existence. And so I dedicate my thoughts, actions, operations, in the service of my Creator God. It would be great if my whole day, even life, were affected by this dedication, but it is a start if it affects at least my prayer-time. God's creature at prayer is behaving as she was created to behave all the time - in tune with God's plan for her.

Phase Four. Notice what you are wanting (remember that supermarket: that if you lose touch with what you've come for - praise maybe or thanksgiving or contrition or clarification of the way ahead - you will go away with nothing

Phase Five. For the length of time you've decided make use of what's in your heart - like the Psalmist - or use Scripture or a book etc whatever seems appropriate; and at the end REFLECT for a few minutes - seek to know what was going on in what heppened.