Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.
Reflections on the Intimate Dialogue between Man and God.
Letter XV. Lewis describes how he approaches prayer and how just simply talking to God does not work for him. Emotional intensity does not necessarily mean deep spirituality. When we pray in terror we are certainly emotional. But that just proves that terror is an intense emotion.
Letter XVI. Lewis is not fond of images in prayer. Physical images lead him to think about their quality, or lack thereof, and distract him from prayer. Mental images lead him to endless elaboration and distraction in another way. He does believe the image of the crucifixion is important, but even it can’t be faced in its brutality routinely. He has an interesting distinction between adjectives and nouns saying that in his experience all of his earliest memories about about qualities, not about things.
Letter XVII. Lewis talks about prayer as worship or adoration and credits Malcolm with teaching him the first great principle—begin where you are. He talks about recognizing the divine in the things around you, but list three obstacles to making that happen. “… the simplest of mere obedience is worship of a far more important sort than what I’ve been been describing (to obey is better than sacrifice).” “Joy is the serious business of heaven."