“My daughter, whoever pronounces the four words ‘Jesus, have mercy on me’ with perfect faith and disposition pleases me more than someone who recites thousands of verses without paying attention.” (Words of Jesus to Saint Bridget of Sweden)
It takes great inner attention to pronounce these four words — “Jesus, have mercy on me” — in such a way that they truly please Him.
The Lord is not referring to the involuntary distractions that beset us again and again during prayer and cause us suffering. These distractions are annoying, but they are unintentional. Jesus is most likely referring to the situation we fall into when, in some way, our prayer becomes mechanical — when we do not lift our hearts to Him but simply let them wander. Such prayer becomes increasingly empty and does not give us the light we could receive when praying. The heart is absent. Instead, a brief and sincere prayer — note the similarity between the four words mentioned by Jesus and the prayer of the heart — can rise up to God.
St. Teresa of Avila constantly exhorted her sisters to be attentive during the recitation of the Breviary and to remember before whom they stood and to whom they addressed themselves.
Only the Lord can grant us a heart attentive to God. Yet we can do our part by striving again and again to center it on Him and by not wasting our capacity to love on superficial things.
Above all, we must ask our Father to grant us a heart that burns with love for Him and for all humanity, His children.
If this love grows within us, it will be easier to focus our attention on God during prayer and to avoid distractions, whether deliberate or careless. May the Lord have mercy on us!