12 Tips For Overcoming Difficulties In Prayer

[AccountDeleted]

Found this online and thought i might be helpful. Perhaps posters could give their own tips as well?

[url="http://marysaggies.blogspot.com/2011/10/12-tips-to-overcoming-difficulties-in.html"]http://marysaggies.b...culties-in.html[/url]

I liked these reasons too...
[center][b]7 REASONS WE LET OUR PRAYER LIVES SLIP[/b][/center]

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[*][b]Discouragement [/b]- Sometimes we don't know what to say, how to pray, what to do. Sometimes we are tired, feeling bad, or we just don't have a desire to pray.
[*][b]Doubt [/b]- Is God really there? Can He hear me? Does He care, even if He exists? Does prayer really even matter?
[*][b]Impatience [/b]- Prayers can seem to go on forever with only silence coming from heaven. When will God answer me?
[*][b]Temptations [/b]- It is easy to pray when you aren't challenged internally through temptation. But, when the temptations enter in, it becomes drudgery.
[*][b]Laziness [/b]- We sometimes just give up or never establish habits that sustain us in dry times or through the business of modern life.
[*][b]Dryness[/b] - God seems distant and prayer becomes a chore. This can happen at any time.
[*][b]Physical, Mental, or Emotional Problems[/b] - When we suffer, it is hard to pray, because we sometimes feel that a loving God would make it stop.
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Some people can't be bothered following links, so here are the tips too!!

[center][b]12 TIPS FOR OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES IN PRAYER[/b][/center]
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[*][b]Frequent the Sacraments[/b] - If you can make daily Mass even once a week, you have doubled your access to the greatest gift ever given humanity. Now, go to Confession at least monthly and you are surely going to get a multitude of graces. Put these on a calendar so you don't skip them.
[*][b]Establish Good Habits[/b] - You should be able to rely on your habits to help you, and not hurt you, in your prayer. A good habit takes [url="http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd/2010/05/how-long-does-it-take-an-action-to-become-a-habit-21-28-or-66-days/"][color="#3d85c6"]66 days[/color][/url] (or longer) to establish. So, if you can commit to a routine of prayer for 2 months, you should start to lay the groundwork for healthy prayer habits.
[*][b]Accountability Counts[/b] - You need someone who is more objective than you are to look at your prayer life and see how you are doing and how the Holy Spirit is working. A spiritual director is invaluable in helping. But, if you don't think you are ready, even have a holy friend to talk to can be good.
[*][b]Try Different Types of Prayer[/b] - We all have different tastes in prayer, just like most other things in life. So, try out different types of prayer and see which ones work for you. One caveat - don't give up too soon on a type of prayer. It might take a good long time to discover whether it is good for you or not.
[*][b]Fast Regularly [/b]- There is great power in fasting. We see it in Scripture when Jesus fasts and calls his disciples to do the same. When we have better control over the desires of our bodies, we can pray better.
[*][b]Overcome Distractions[/b] - The simple way to overcome a distraction is to not give into it. Once you realize you are distracted turn your heart and mind back to your prayer, not to examining the distraction. This simple act is the easiest way to defeat distractions.
[*][b]Don't Over-think Prayer[/b] - Too often we tend to complicate something that should come naturally to us. We are made for communion with God. Prayer is merely directing your mind and heart in the direction of God. If we over-complicate it, we get caught up in the externals.
[*][b]Dryness is Good For Us[/b] - Dry prayers are a gift from God. Yes, we all long to have consolations in our prayer, just as a child longs for candy and having those denied is difficult, but healthy for us. It is in dryness that our faith is tested and strengthened.
[*][b]Pray for Humility [/b]- To the extent we are humble is the extent of the power of God's grace changing our lives. Without humble prayer, God is unable to reach us, because we have no interior need for Him.
[*][b]Work on a Proper Understanding of God and Self [/b]- I can not emphasize this one enough. Many of us struggle to understand how a perfect God could love us and want a relationship with us. But, this is due, mainly, to our bad perceptions of our own dignity and the way God loves us unconditionally.
[*][b]Quiet [/b]- Our modern lives are filled with noise. We need to quiet ourselves to hear God - both internally and externally. Find a peaceful and quiet place to pray. Church is helpful in this respect - so if you can stop at a church, even for a short time, I recommend you do so.
[*][b]Prioritize Prayer[/b]. Schedule it. Bump something else. Get up early. Do whatever you have to do, but don't let a day go by without spending time with the most important person in your
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Edited November 4, 2011 by nunsense

[Lil Red]

i commented over there under my blog name:
As a parent, a mom, I would just add that to be gentle on yourself. I was becoming scrupulous because I would fail to pray at the Hours because I was playing with my kids or you know, being a mom! It wasn't until a wise, young, priest said to me that part of prayer is fulfilling my vocation well! So yes, pray when you can and as often as you can...but when your vocation as a parent interrupts, *that* is your prayer.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1320367449' post='2331027']
i commented over there under my blog name:
As a parent, a mom, I would just add that to be gentle on yourself. I was becoming scrupulous because I would fail to pray at the Hours because I was playing with my kids or you know, being a mom! It wasn't until a wise, young, priest said to me that part of prayer is fulfilling my vocation well! So yes, pray when you can and as often as you can...but when your vocation as a parent interrupts, *that* is your prayer.
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Very good point. I think that in addition to making effort, we also need to trust that God recognises when we offer what we can, when we can, in the way we can. His love is not dependent on us doing things perfectly, but on our love and sincerity and intention. Yes, our will can be tested sometimes and we need to avoid self-indulgence but we also need to avoid scruples, as you said.

What parent isn't pleased when their child is trying to please them? And if our duties require our attention too, as long as we offer these for God's glory then we are also praying through our actions - Martha and Mary working together.

[i<3franciscans]

These are great. And you are very right Lil Red. I make many "things" a prayer even though they are not normal. I heard a speaker once say. "If you are doing the dishes, make it a prayer. If you are working, make it a prayer. If you are sitting in class,[i] make it a prayer.[/i]" That has stuck with me forever...

[BarbTherese]

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1320367449' post='2331027']
i commented over there under my blog name:
As a parent, a mom, I would just add that to be gentle on yourself. I was becoming scrupulous because I would fail to pray at the Hours because I was playing with my kids or you know, being a mom! It wasn't until a wise, young, priest said to me that part of prayer is fulfilling my vocation well! So yes, pray when you can and as often as you can...but when your vocation as a parent interrupts, *that* is your prayer.
[/quote]
Good point - that the duties of our state in life are also prayer hence we should attend to them well. Also, when things go amiss in my prayer schedule, I unite myself to our monastics (Doctrine of The Mystical Body) that their prayer may be mine. Also, I have a concept that if God wanted me to attend to my prayer schedule with religious faithfulness, then He would have seen to it that I was in a monastery. Sometimes in lay life, and perhaps especially in married life with children, the day just wont go as it is planned and from the time one gets up in the morning.
One of our saints whose name now escapes me in fact said "If charity (or duty) calls and you are at prayer, then let charity (or duty) be your prayer".

Also gentleness with oneself is important - it is from being gentle with ourselves that we learn to be gentle with others. From gentleness flows understanding and compassion, forgiveness. Gentleness makes for Peace and Joy. We are gentle as Jesus is absolutely gentle with us.

Edited November 9, 2011 by BarbaraTherese