Cultivate an inner attitude of listening. "In prayer," noted St. Theophan the Recluse, a nineteenth-century Russian bishop who was spiritual father to many people, "the principle thing is to stand before God with the mind in the heart, and to go on standing before Him unceasingly day and night until the end of life." This is the practice of the presence of God — nurturing a moment-to-moment consciousness of God's intimate closeness. Note St. Theophan's stress on the heart: "Stand before God with the mind in the heart." Prayer is love-centered. It is not so much belief in God that matters but love of God, and similarly love of others, even love of enemies.
— Jim Forest, Praying with Icons