However busy you may be, however distracted, however complex life may become, you must not lose the desire to pray. The desire to pray is one thing, the obligation another, and they are not necessarily incompatible. I make the distinction only because there are times in our lives when it is not easy to pray, when we think we have lost the desire to pray. Hence the importance of recognizing the obligation imposed upon us, which enables us, in our frailty and weakness, to persevere. In the life of prayer, fidelity and persistence in the face of all odds, all difficulties, are paramount. These enable us to find again the desire for prayer which, so it seemed, we had lost.
CARDINAL BASIL HUME, OSB The Intentional Life
