Daily Prayer Time

[brandelynmarie]

One of the best things I have heard concerning distractions is from a Benedictine priest from St. Vincent's in PA...For every distraction we have...say during Adoration...when we bring our mind back, we should say..."Jesus, I love you..." So...we may have 150 distracting thoughts or what have you...but we will have made 150 Acts of Love....

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

Very hard to tell as I think "prayerfully" a lot. I have some daily reading stuff that I do and a set of prayers every night. I often have to force myself to do them though. I go through two-week periods where I say a daily rosary but it never lasts. I am very impatient in prayer unfortunately. One thing that has helped me a lot is novenas. They don't take long and you say them once a day for nine days.

A question I have is when somebody on Phatmass asks for prayers and a bunch of nice people say they will pray - what exactly does that entail? I go through a list of people every night and ask a particular saint to pray for them. Do you just offer a short prayer on the spot?

And by the way, I saw that St. Francis' [u]Introduction to the Devout Life[/u] - mentioned earlier in this thread - is now available free online:
[url="http://www.catholicity.com/devoutlife/"]http://www.catholicity.com/devoutlife/[/url]

Edited June 1, 2006 by thedude

[philothea]

[quote name='thedude' post='994799' date='Jun 1 2006, 03:31 PM']
A question I have is when somebody on Phatmass asks for prayers and a bunch of nice people say they will pray - what exactly does that entail? I go through a list of people every night and ask a particular saint to pray for them. Do you just offer a short prayer on the spot?
[/quote]
I don't know what other people do, but I offer a short prayer on the spot (BEFORE I post, or I'll forget ) and then a general intention for all the various concerns during longer prayer time later. Unless it's something I'm very worried about, then I think and pray about it all day.

[Tindomiel]

[quote name='hugheyforlife' post='988131' date='May 23 2006, 11:48 AM']
Prayer is only interrupted if you allow it to be.
I know what you mean by sisters and brothers being called to uninterrupted prayer but even they have distractions (things that must be done). If we are devoted to making time for prayer, it can be done. You have to want to make time in order to find it.
[/quote]

I probably shouldn't have said "constant, uninterrupted." That's a bit of an exaggeration.

Yes, I know that sisters and brothers have other distractions, but, (at least for the contemplative orders...) They have tons more time to actually [i]kneel down and pray.[/i] That's more what I meant when I said uninterrupted. I wasn't counting distractions in; I was defining "interruptions" more as in : eg. your little brother comes to you begging you to play with him while you're trying to say morning prayers. So I meant interruptions of a physical kind.

Now if that was at all comprehensible and not bafflingly circular...

[Christie_M]

I spend about 30min praying a day. Rosary and then other prayers included.

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

How much do I pray each day? Normally 1-2 hours: it's something I find I need to make my day go right.

Now, how much should someone pray? I voted for other, because for each person I think it'll be different. Everyone's prayer life is different, so for one person ten minutes may be enough, but for others they may need to spend more than 10 hours in prayer (Carthusians anyone?). Each soul is vastly different. But here's a catch: I don't know that defining prayer strictly as time spent silently in the Chapel or in a silent room talking to God or praying the Rosary or lectio divina is completely fair. St. Paul does say to pray constantly, and St. Benedict references this when saying, "That in all things God may be glorified." Every act we do, every word we say, should be a prayer. Just because our minds are not expressly focused on God does not mean that we are not praying. Our entire [i]lives[/i] should be one, giant prayer praising God through every action we do and through every word we speak. The time spent exclusively with God each day, I think, should be enough time to rejuvinate us so as to go back into the world and be the light that Christ calls us to be. So however much time you need to spend with God so as to be able to proclaim Him to the world in your every action and word throughout the rest of the day, then that's how much time you should spend in the Chapel, praying the Rosary, lectio divina, etc. I know for me personally I need between 1-2 hours to do this, and I still fair regularly, but as I said before, each person is different.

[philothea]

Whoever bumped this, I appreciate it! Still interested in responses.

NazFarmer, I like your thinking.

[TeresaBenedicta]

I generally pray 1-2 hrs a day. I try to make a holy hour everyday, and then also pray the rosary outside of that. Daily Mass.

I voted 'other' for how much time people [i]should[/i] pray. Everyone should, if they can, get to daily Mass-- that's objectively the greatest prayer there is. And then, time permitting, 15-30 minutes of mental pray a day. If you have other devotions, great. If not, that's fine too.

[Saint Therese]

I think that a truly prayerful person should be serious about being recollected and prayerful throughtout the day.

[Angel*Star]

As a wife and home schooling mother, there is precious little time to carve out of my day to pray by myself. I find myself finding little moments throughout the day thanking God for this or that...asking for strength to get through the moment...I try to make my life my prayer as St. Therese did. I forget a lot and have to keep trying and starting over. I try to pray with my children, but even then I have to keep starting over.

[kljoyce]

For me, it depends on the circumstance. And the person. Personally for me, I like to have lots of moments of 'silent communiques' to God and some Hail Mary's in there. I never say enough Hail Mary's though! I used to go to Church many times a week for mass and really enjoyed it, but since I've moved I feel more comfortable praying alone. I think one of the things that are important is the value of 'sit alone in your room, and close the door, and pray'; previously I could just walk alone to my Church (that I felt really connected to), but now I feel uncomfortable doing faith related things out in public. (My family is very anti-religion.)

I guess everyone has something that works for them. I think everyone should go with what is most spiritually meaningful to them (ie. formal vs informal prayer, mass attendance vs solitary prayer etc.) This whole discussion is really interesting, and kind of ineffable, in regards to what God wants us to do, or what He values most, etc. But I think the action of 'thinking about it' is also what's important, regardless of what someone's conclusion/choices are. Recently I've gotten really enamored of the idea of saying grace when I have a family/marry etc. It seems like a great way to harken back to tradition (the Jewish blessing over bread) and also have a moment of feeling fortunate for the blessings God gives us. Even existence, or moments of happiness, or food of course are all amazing things. I like how saying grace links the common act of eating to God and thankfulness. Just the other day I was watching The Blind Side, the movie Sandra Bullock just won an oscar for I think, and in it the family says grace at Thanksgiving, and it's really moving (to me.) That scene really brought home to me how beautiful saying grace is. =)

[lookingforfaith]

I try to make my whole day a prayer. I have little moments of conversation with God throughout the day. I formally pray in the morning and at night. A lot of my worktime is spent alone (when not with customers) so it's easy to have quiet moments of contemplation. So answering the poll is kinda hard.

[Fragments]

I'm in the midst of a 54 novena, so I'm praying three full rosaries each day, I'm also reading the bible for somewhere between 10-30 minutes a day and I have a Divine Office app on my iPod that I listen and pray to most nights.

So probably 1-2 hours