Prayer Routines

[Peace]

What do people here do for prayer? I am not a big prayer person. But I should be.

Just trying to get a feel for what people do and get some good ideas.

Pray in the morning? Pray in the evening? Both? Pray the rosary while driving at unsafe speeds?

Pray divine office or use the "Christian Prayer" book? Use the Magnificat? Use some other books?

What does your daily "routine" look like, if you have a routine? Like, 3 hail marys, 3 our fathers, a petition or two, a St. Michael and then go to sleep?

I am pretty sure I have posted on this topic before, but just wondering what people do. What have you found to be good for you? What has not worked for you?

Edited September 7, 2016 by Peace

[CountrySteve21]

St. Francis de Sales has a book called "Introduction to the Devout life" its written for the laity; he recommends twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Prayer books are nice especially the  Liturgy of the Hours, but we need to practice some mental prayer too.

 

 

[Nihil Obstat]

I have never quite managed to get fully in the habit, but I always find praying the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be incredibly edifying. We are finally in the habit of a daily rosary though (should have been ages ago, frankly), so it is a good start.

[NadaTeTurbe]

I'm really struggling with prayers, right now, but :

On the morning, I just can't pray because I'm already very slow to get ready for school, so I just do a sign of the cross, and in the bus I pray a quick prayers for the people around me. 

At midday, I try to pray the Angelus, but I often forget. 

I like to say little prayers from the Bible during the day, such as : "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief" (mark 9,24), "Lord, heal me" (psalm 6), "Hear my prayer", "Don't hide your face" (ps 26), and Teresa of Avila : "Nada te turbe, nada te espante, quien a Dios tiene, todo le falta, solo Dios basta."

On the evening, I read today's gospel or another part of the Bible, Confiteor, time to think about my sins, our Father, a prayer of intercession to people I know (mostly through Our Lady of Lourdes intercession), psalm 90, prayer of Bl.Charles de Foucault, the Magnificat and the prayer of St Symeon. I then try to take 10-15 minutes of silent prayer, but I often give up after 5... 

[Nihil Obstat]

One of the seminarians for the FSSP was saying a week or two ago, sometimes those prayers you say when you are distracted, the least motivated, not into it at all, those prayers can be the ones which are most pleasing to God. It is because you do it only for Him, not because of any good feelings it gives you, or any benefits you might be hoping for. Purely for Him.

[LittleWaySoul]

I've been trying to do a lot more mental prayer lately. Nothing special; mostly just reminding myself throughout the day that the Holy Spirit dwells in me and that God loves me. And I love Him back. Simple, but grounding.

Sometimes when I remember I'll pray the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, / have mercy on me, a sinner." Often I'll try to sync the two parts of the prayer to my breathing as is typical with this prayer. 

I also pray for strangers or people around me when I think of it. The other day I prayed a Hail Mary for each of the people ahead of me in line at Walmart and for the cashier because I was impatient and wanted to do something more productive than complain internally. 

I want to work on other more external forms of prayer as well, though. In my almost immediate vicinity there are like 6 Masses on any given day (at different times of day), with almost as many confession times plus adoration & benediction at least once a day. But I have yet to attend a daily Mass or otherwise take time out of my day to pray in adoration or go to confession. I want to get away from the mentality that "I don't have time for this," especially when opportunity is so dang plentiful where I am.

[beatitude]

My secular institute requires its members to attend daily Mass whenever possible and to spend at least one hour of each day in Adoration. If it's not possible to go to Adoration or be before a tabernacle, we should make that hour of silent prayer in our own homes. We also pray at least one Office from the Divine Office. These are the bare bones of my prayer life.

I kneel down on my prayer stool almost as soon as I get out of bed (I clean my teeth first, because I can't stand praying with icky teeth), and begin the day with half an hour of lectio divina and silent prayer. I have a Scripture passage picked out the night before. I open the Bible with the psalmist's words, "I will proclaim your love in the morning and your truth in the watches of the night," and I ask Jesus to give me a real love for him as the Word Incarnate. I pray to receive nourishment from what I'm about to read. After meditating on the scripture and praying in silence for a while, I think about how I might apply the reading to the day to come, especially if I'm working in the hospital. This slides into intercessory prayer. I get up and make a cup of tea (a cup of tea with Jesus is an important part of my morning prayer ritual - I'm British, he understands this) and I pray for various people and needs as I'm slurping it down. Then I make my morning offering: "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you." I keep praying this for a few minutes. Then I'm off out to do whatever I have to do.

My evening prayer routine is more changeable, because it depends on whether I'm at the hospital or not (I work fourteen-hour shifts there). I always end the day with a litany, usually St Faustina's praises of the Divine Mercy. That much is consistent.

I view the morning prayer as my battery charger for the day. If you're not in the habit of regular prayer, I think it helps to pick one simple devotion to act as your charger. All the rest will follow.

[Seven77]

 Ideally for me-- what I need to continue to do everyday:

Morning offering. Talk to Jesus-- what do you want me to do today, How do you want me to be? Listen.

 Grace before meals

Morning prayer in the Magnificat

Meditate with Scripture, meditation of the Day in Magnificat

 Divine mercy chaplet

 Spiritual reading

 Rosary

Evening prayer in Magnificat

examination of conscience––a conversation with God

 Some kind of night prayer

 

It's good to use the In Conversation with God set of daily meditations…

[Maximilianus]

My basic daily prayer takes place on my way to work. I'll start while sitting in my car praying about 70% and continue on the road, by the time I get to the parking lot I'm finished. My routine consist of a prayer of thanksgiving, an act of contrition, petitions and intentions on behalf of others/friends/family. Asking the intercession of the Holy Mother, Saints and Angels. Hail Mary, Fatima prayer, Lord's Prayer, prayers for various intentions for myself, Prayer to the Holy Spirit and the Glory Be. Takes a little less than 10 minutes.

I definitely need to incorporate more prayer and devotions. 

 

[Guest]

On rising, having coffee: Morning Offering, Come Holy Spirit, Guardian Angel, Hail Holy Queen and Our Father.  If I pray these unreflectively, I repeat until I am reflective.  It can take over an hour to be fully awake from previous night's psychiatric medication - and a bit longer before my limbs are sufficiently limber to get dressed.  After fully awake I will pray Morning Prayer or perhaps even after I am dressed.

With leaving voluntary work outside the parish (2 bus trips there and again for return), I have changed my prayer times.  If for some reason I am unable to get to a particular time, I simply move on to the next.  But most times nowadays I can pray the routine.

Rather than going by the clock, formal prayer times are around duties of the day.

• Morning Prayer (Matins)
• Gospel Reading and Meditation
• None (afternoon prayer)
• 15mins Private Prayer
• Evening Prayer (Vespers)
• Night Prayer (Compline)

Spiritual Reading during the day.

Spontaneous mental aspirations as I go about my day including drifting off to sleep.

Rather than make a formal type of daily examination of conscience, I prefer to do so before I see my SD next time when I also go to Confession.  I write down the results of my formal examination of conscience so I forget nothing in Confession. 

 

[CountrySteve21]

Quote

Who can assure us that we will be alive tomorrow? Let us listen to the voice of our conscience, to the voice of the royal prophet: “Today, if you hear God’s voice, harden not your heart.” Let us not put off from one moment to another (what we should do) because the (next moment) is not yet ours. ~Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Its a helpful reminder when I am tempted to skip my prayer routine.

In my own routine I pray the Liturgy of the Hours ( Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recommended Lauds (morning prayer), Vespers (Evening Prayer) and Compline (Night Prayer). Though many may not have time for that; why not just one of the hours?

[Papist]

Read Gospel for 15 minutes in the morning, try to talk/pray to Jesus throughout the day, family rosary at night.  

[Seven77]

8 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Rather than make a formal type of daily examination of conscience, I prefer to do so before I see my SD next time when I also go to Confession.  I write down the results of my formal examination of conscience so I forget nothing in Confession. 

 

 

 You can do both though… and it doesn't have to be a * formal* type of daily examination...

[Antonella]

 have found it difficult to stick to a prayer schedule... untill I began to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. You can begin with Compline, wich is said before going to sleep and it's shorter then the other ones. I have found it easier to pray the LotH because I know that the Community I want to enter pray it too and it's really nice knowing that I pray the same thing (and sometimes at the same time) as they do.

I think that the key to building a prayer schedule is to start small. Don't try to pray the Rosary all at once, start with a decade and add another one each week or so. Start with 5 minutes of reading the Bible, maybe read the Daily Readings. Or you could try and read the Bible in a year. Or just the New Testament. There are on the internet plenty of reading schedules.

 http://www.piercedhands.com/reading-bible-year/

I hope this helps.

 

[John Paul]

I like praying to Compline with the New Melleray tunes . Theres stays the same each day. I like Christian Pryaer to.

Listen to it before you sleep and if you have a breviary pray a long for Psalm 90 and 4 and the responsory and canticle it isnt all the same.