” When a person wants simply to pray without any rule at all, usually that sort of prayer quickly ends, thins out after a few heartfelt sighs of the soul, and he doesn’t know what to say; because we can’t find a prayerful mood all by ourselves. The prayer rule organizes the soul, and gets it into the mood for prayer.”
(Priest Valery Dukhanin on building a prayer rule in pravoslavie)