The three most valuable helps for those who would learn to pray are, 1) an experienced mentor or spiritual director, 2) the use of well prepared set prayers, and 3) perseverance.
Our experience of being reconciled to God through Christ provides the inspiration and the model for the work of reconciliation across the various divides within our world.
Our perception of things can be distorted by the context in which we see them. Jesus constantly challenges our misperceptions by challenging us to look at things through a different frame. It is only by constant reference to Jesus and to the ways that he looked at things that we learn to see ourselves and our surrounds more realistically.