Prayer

Prayer is then the first and most important step.
All through the life of faith one must resort constantly to prayer, because faith is not simply a gift which we receive once for all in our first act of belief.
Every new development of faith, every new increment of supernatural light, even though we may earnestly working to acquire it, remains a pure gift of God.

Prayer is therefore the very heart of the life of faith.

-- Thomas Merton, Life and Holiness