I'm about to close up this blog for Lent.
I have all these runner friends on Facebook. They have these cool apps like "the Daily Mile" to share their running stats and gain encouragement from other. Ah! Won't it be great to have a "Daily Prayer Mile" app?
Lent is the time to kick it up a notch, baby!
So my basic advice for anyone starting a new prayer routine is "easy does it" "don't expect to much from yourself too soon!' and "regularity of a prayer routine is more important than length." For example, in my little opinion, working in 10 minutes of prayer every single day for 30 days is far more effective than a few hours of prayer on the weekends.
Anyone else have prayer advice for novice prayers this Lenten Season?
9 comments:
I love, love, love reading your blog! Not sure if I've commented on here yet. I seriously discerned religious life for about 3 years and am grateful for the process (and excited for married life one day!). But I've never known anyone who was a third order or oblate, so it's very cool to read about your life. You're so honest ("rough night at boy scouts! let's get mcdonald's frappes!" lol -that's so me!) Anyway, my advice for people new to prayer is - don't worry about feelings. Prayer isn't "better" or "worse" if you feel God's love or if you feel nothing at all. It's hard to always remember that.
My advice is don't get mad or flustered when your prayer time is interrupted, especially when you're a mother of little ones. Instead, try to deal with the interruption calmly and make that interaction a part of your prayer. Not that I'm very good at that, mind you. For me one of the hardest things is not to snap at the kids, "Can't you see I'm praying!" Tells you about the quality of my prayer, huh? But I'm working on it.
My husband and I have been doing evening prayer right before brushing our teeth. We use I Breviary and the service is called Compline. He reads one paragraph and then I read the next. It only takes a few minutes but it does end the day on a nice note. Oh yeah, its FREE.
Great comments. Keep them coming!
Yeah, prayer isn't about feelings. "It's called work for a reason!"
And it's not about what you get out of it. Just do it. A lot of time I feel like prayer is "boring" or "wasted time." I don't feel better when I do it, just hours or days later. (Also like running)
I find the most important act I do to keep my prayer life going is to pray for the graces to pray the next day. Or if I find my prayer life has dropped off (ahem, now), the best prayer I can make is the quick prayer to pray more. When my prayer life is very active, I can become prideful about it. I have a suspicion that God allows my prayer life to dry up so that I remember that even in my prayer life I must rely on His help and grace.
I think for me, the most important thing is to take my prayer life day by day. If I decide I will pray a daily rosary, angelus and a divine mercy chaplet every day for the rest of my life so help me God, within a couple of days I will give up in despair and disillusion. So I just pray as much as I can as well as I can today, and if tomorrow I can only do less or I get extra time to pray more, so be it.
Prayer and the commitment to prayer can't be a matter of how you feel. And also, don't take it personally if the kids aren't into the family prayer life. I require respect and at least a fairly quiet atmosphere, but I can't require that they really connect with it. But we keep coming together anyway. Sometimes it will be easier, sometimes harder, and sometimes it feels worthless. But we keep coming together as a family before God. And sometimes it will go well for awhile and you think you're in a groove then it will seem like you go completely off the rails.
And speaking of prayer, any update on your daughter's friend Emma? My Emma has been remembering her in prayer during our family prayer every night and was wondering.
I have always been taught that there is no "proper" way to pray. Just open your heart to God and invite him in. He will hear your inner voice and He will provide, Thy Will Be Done (which is how I end all my prayers).
Blessings to you and yours +++
This is not an "usual" Lent for the Church. I would definitely add a daily special intention for Benedict XVI and for the cardinal that will be the new Pope.
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