Distraction during prayer is not a sign you are doing it wrong. It is a sign you are human. The saints dealt with it too. The practice is not to achieve perfect focus but to keep returning. Each time you notice you have wandered and turn back to God, that turning itself is an act of prayer. Fr. Mike Schmitz suggests using the distraction rather than fighting it, bringing it to God as the content of the prayer itself.

Yes. Scripture is direct on this. “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24). God does not hear selectively based on how well you pray or how worthy you feel. The question is not whether he hears but whether we trust that he does, and whether we are willing to keep bringing ourselves to him regardless of what the answer looks like.

This is one of the oldest questions in faith and there is no easy answer. What the Church teaches is that God always responds to prayer, but not always in the way or time we expect. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes it is not yet. Sometimes it is something better than what was asked for. The struggle with unanswered prayer is itself a form of prayer if it keeps you in conversation with God rather than turning you away from him.

There is no required minimum. What matters more than length is consistency and intention. Ten minutes prayed with genuine attention every day is worth more than an hour prayed out of obligation once a week. Start with ten to fifteen minutes. Make it the same time each day. Let it grow naturally. Most people who establish a daily prayer habit find they want more of it over time, not less.

Absolutely. The great prayers of the Church, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Psalms, have been worn smooth by millions of voices over centuries. They are not empty repetition if prayed with attention. In fact, memorised prayer has an advantage: when you are too tired, too sad, or too scattered to find your own words, the words are already there. They carry you when you cannot carry yourself.