Now, the important thing to remember is that you don’t rush through saying these prayers. After all, if you don’t pay any attention to the prayers that you’re saying, then you aren’t putting much of yourself into the prayers. You only get out what you put in. The merit of your prayers is, for the most part, measured by how well you pray. If you do not try very hard to pray well, then you are not going to get many souls out of Purgatory. The need to pray well is the same for ALL of your prayers, not just the prayers you offer to God for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

But 10 prayers a day isn’t very hard really. You can say one after each meal and another when you get up in the morning and again when you go to bed. That only leaves 5 prayers left to say for the whole rest of the day.

But certainly don’t attempt to say more prayers than you can handle. It would be better to say the prayer once a day well than to say the prayer 10 times and not really think about what you are saying.

How does one pray well?

Sometimes it helps to think about the words as we are saying them. "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus ..." We are offering up to God the Father the Merits of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. Think about the Blood that Jesus shed for you on the Cross. It was the shedding of this Blood that brought about the redemption of the human race and opened up the Gates of Heaven. The offering of the Merits of Christ’s Precious Blood to God the Father is indeed the sacrifice of Calvary. This sacrifice is continually offered throughout the world in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as the prayer goes on to say. OUR offering of Christ’s Merits are combined with that same offering of all the Masses said throughout the world!

Also, looking at one or more pictures can aid us in our concentration. There are many nice pictures of the Poor Souls in Purgatory, the Poor Souls being released and ascending joyously into Heaven, etc. If you don’t have a real image to look at, you can try to create one in your mind. Try to picture the Poor Souls in the pains of Purgatory to arouse your sympathy and thereby the fervor of your prayers. Sometimes it helps to imagine them in the glory of Heaven, and the stark contrast between their past pains and their present joys, increasing their gratitude towards you. And think, if you go to Heaven, there will be real people, who saw the same sun you did and walked the same earth, that you’ll be able to see and talk to. And you helped them get to Heaven.

Sometimes, though, beautiful pictures and thoughts do not come easily. In fact, we often find ourselves struggling hard to keep the distractions away. The important thing to remember about distractions is to keep fighting them. Try to refocus your mind on a holy thought. Now if you spend your whole prayer time just fighting the distractions, there may not even be time to think of holy things. That is okay. As long as you never give in to the distractions but, as soon as you realize you have them, you try to throw them out and refocus, then you have prayed well. It is not wrong to keep your mind blank while you simply listen to yourself saying the words of the prayer. A blank mind is far better than one which is filled with distracted and unholy thoughts.

If you really try to fight distractions off, and that’s all you wind up doing, then God will be pleased. Many Saints had times in their life when it was very hard to pray. But, with God’s grace, they worked hard to be faithful and fight against distractions or boredom. Frequently, Jesus would appear to the Saints to comfort them and tell them that He was pleased with the effort they put into praying well, even if it felt like they did not succeed. When you pray, try to keep your mind and heart focused on God and the reason why you are praying. But, if it is a struggle, God will only judge the quality of your prayer based on how quickly and how hard you tried to keep to that focus. God knows what you wanted to do, how hard you tried, and is quite pleased when you give Him your very best.