During Monergism Books' recent sale I bought The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions. Here are a couple of excerpts from the Preface:
These prayers are drawn from the largely forgotten deposit of Puritan spiritual exercises, meditations, and aspirations.
...
The book is not intended to be read as a prayer manual. The soul learns to pray by praying; for prayer is communion with a transcendent and immanent God who on the ground of his nature and attributes calls forth all the powers of the redeemed soul in acts of total adoration and dedication. The prayers should therefore be used as aspiration units, the several parts of which could become springboards for the individual's own prayer subjects.
The writer seems to assume the reader is familiar with the term "aspiration" in connection with prayer, but it's a new one to me. Can anyone clarify?...
The book is not intended to be read as a prayer manual. The soul learns to pray by praying; for prayer is communion with a transcendent and immanent God who on the ground of his nature and attributes calls forth all the powers of the redeemed soul in acts of total adoration and dedication. The prayers should therefore be used as aspiration units, the several parts of which could become springboards for the individual's own prayer subjects.