An excerpt from a good book on all types of Catholic prayer, how to deal with distractions etc, written by a Jesuit and used at some seminaries for beginning prayer text:
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When Things Go Haywire
Dealing With Distractions
Orientation
In the next three chapters, I discuss two apparent problem areas in prayer. This chapter discusses the problem of superficial distractions that keep me from being focused in prayer. The two that follow this one discuss the more important issue of dryness in prayer. *
On ER, Snakes and Other Distractions
Here’s a not-so-unusual sample of what’s going on inside my head during prayer:
Come, Lord Jesus…Come, Lord Jesus…Come, Lord Jesus… Oh, that barbecue just isn’t sitting right in my stomach…still, it was nice of Fred to grill some burgers tonight—Pray, Mark! Pray!..Come, Lord Jesus…Come, Lord Jesus…Fred has really been a great friend to me. I hope he wasn’t offended when I teased him about his cooking. That was a really stupid thing to say. I can’t believe I said that—Come on, Mark, Pray! Sorry, Lord. Come, Lord Jesus…Come, Lord Jesus…Come, Lord Jesus…Shoot! I forgot that ER is playing on TV right now! I hope somebody’s taping it. Come, Lord Jesus…Or maybe it’s just a rerun anyway…Come, Lord Jesus…Come, Lord Jesus…I can’t believe I’m thinking about ER during prayer; what the heck is my problem here? Come, Lord Jesus…I guess I’m just distracted. Come, Lord Jesus…as distracted as Mark Green was on ER last Thursday…Come, Lord Jesus…
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
As a beginner in prayer, I might find myself complaining: “My prayer is full of distractions. I try to speak and listen to God, but then my foot starts itching, or my mind starts wandering off on some tangent or a thousand crazy images fly by in my head, and before I know it, I have completely lost my state of quiet.” These distractions might be so nagging that they discourage me and make me feel that I have failed at the task of prayer. I might run to books and spiritual guides desperately seeking a solution—wanting to learn the tricks that would rid my prayer of these crazy thoughts and that would allow me to reach a state of utter silence.
No one is impervious to distractions. One of the most important mystics of our day, Trappist monk Thomas Merton said, “If you have never had any distractions, you don’t know how to pray.”1 These random thoughts are normal and natural phenomena of my mind, and while they can be diminished, they can never be fully expelled. I am created with this wondrous contraption called the brain, which, praise God, cannot be turned off at will.
While there are a few tricks that will help me to focus better, they are not the most important things to learn about distractions. This is what is important to know: My anxiety, distress, guilt and anger about the distractions are far more detrimental to my prayer than the distractions themselves. The most effective way to diminish the distractions, then, is not to worry about them at all—I don’t give them a second thought (literally). That second thought is yet another distraction and, therefore, a trap into an endless loop of (a) the initial distraction—“ER is playing now”—and (b) worry over the initial distraction—“I can’t believe I’m thinking about ER during prayer.” While there is only a little I can do to rid myself of the initial distractions, there is much I can do to free myself from anxiety about them. This is what actually distinguishes a mystic from a novice pray-er. Mystics often have as many distractions as novices do, but the difference is in their perception of and their reaction to them.
Thibodeaux S.J., Mark (2011-08-09). Armchair Mystic: Easing into Contemplative Prayer (p. 121). St. Anthony Messenger Press. Kindle Edition. 