Someone once asked St Teresa of Avila: “How do I assess my prayer? It feels dry so often. I read the bible and it’s over my head. I go on autopilot at Mass sometimes. In holy hours I don’t have visions and often enough I don’t cry or have some great movement of heard. I don’t know if I’m doing confession right. I pray the rosary and sometimes it just seems repetitive. All my prayers…how do I know if they’re any good or not? How can I evaluate my prayer?”

The doctor of the Church replied: “You can evaluate your prayer by this: if you love God and others better afterwards.”

And what is love? Today’s second reading tells us: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, It is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

So…if you’re more patient, kinder, less jealous, less pompous, less inflated, etc after any type of prayer—your prayer is going pretty good