Hi I’m a new member (not a new catholic).
I joined as I have had difficulty praying for a while now and every time I try my mind just wanders to different things.
I have a very busy life and a stressful job but I try to make time for prayer but my mind can’t seem to shut everything else out. Even when I’m able to go to mass my mind wanders.
I feel I’m so consumed by my life that I have no time for Jesus.
Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?
Please reply.
Pamela
xx
Hi Pamela
Welcome to the prayers intentions forum.
We all go through times of being distracted when trying to concentrate on prayer it is normal.
For me when I read all the intentions here of people in great need I feel compelled to pray with them and for them. So my suggestion to you would be to read a few of the posts here in the prayer intentions forum and if you feel like it you may wish to add a written prayer to help others. For me it helps me enormously to put my life into perspective when I see what others are going through. There are so many ways to pray and dedicate ourselves to God.
The other thing I would just say is talk to God throughout your day. Develop a relationship with talking to God whilst you are doing other things. I enjoy reading passages from the bible and reading about the lives of the saints…they always inspire me.
Hope this is a little help.
God bless you Pamela 
Welcome to CAF
Praying for the help of the Holy Spirit is good.
One thing that helped me a lot was praying the 54-day Rosary Novena–they give you a little prayer before each mystery and that helped me focus. Others have recommended Scriptural Rosaries…
When doing the 54-Day Novena, one thing I learned was that praying is like playing a musical instrument. You are improving as you practice/play. This is like praying, because while you are praying, you are also practicing and thus improving. I hope this makes sense.
Distractions are normal, esp as you start off, and the thing to do is to just let them pass out of your mind as you re-focus. Don’t even worry about them, just gently put your mind back where it belongs. If you persevere, you’ll get better at focusing.
Like everything else, if you slack off for a bit, your ability will go down again… I’m at that place where a lot of life distracted me from my prayers and now I am about where are!
You might find these helpful:
Fr. John Bartunek on distractions in prayer…
rcspiritualdirection.com/blog/2013/03/04/struggling-with-distractions-in-prayer
…and on Christian meditation.
Blessings to you.
Get Peter Kreefts book “Prayer for Beginners”
amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898707757/theofficiapet-20
peterkreeft.com/audio/32_prayer-beginners.htm
There is a lot of good advice provided so far. I can think of 3 other things that have been helpful to me:
1.) It is much more difficult to be distracted if you pray out loud (for me at least). Don’t be too frustrated by wandering thoughts and distractions, just keep at it and you’ll get better at it.
2.) Also, a prayer doesn’t need to be long… just heart felt, honest, sincere. Divide up your prayers into separate intentions and make brief prayers for them and say them as often as you can through the day.
3.) Ask the Holy Spirit to intercede for you on your behalf and pray for and with you when you start. Even if you get distracted, GOD knows your heart, your desires and intentions and will be gracious, kind and understanding. Just keep coming back and keep at it.
May GOD bless you and keep you. The Lord let His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look kindly upon you and grant you peace.
Beautiful post