All day in prayer

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mattd327

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Hello I’m currently unemployed due to my disability so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying scripture and praying the rosary. I’m impressed with Saints like Padre Pio who prayed the Rosary up to 50 times per day. Is it common for saints and monks to spend all day in prayer? I’m thinking about possibly devoting my day to prayer and study because the internet gets on my nerves.
 
To the best of my knowledge, no. There was always work for them to do, but then work can be a prayer when offered up to God. St Benedict’s motto “Ora et labora” means “pray and work”
 
No, I don’t believe that is very common at all, but a very particular grace. Our religious may pray a lot, but their entire lives, whether praying, working, eating, and so forth, are offered as living holocausts to God, and those not just their words, but their lives, are prayer.

That said, don’t let this discourage you from using the opportunity of your present circumstances to broaden and deepen your prayer life–understanding, of course, that this too is a very particular grace.
 
"It is well to bear in mind that in commanding us to pray always our Saviour did not mean actual prayer, as that would be an impossibility. The desire to glorify God by all our actions suffices for the rigorous fulfilment of this precept, if this desire be habitual and permanent. “You pray often,” says St. Augustine, “if you often have a desire to pay homage to God by your actions: you pray always if you always have this desire, no matter how you may be otherwise employed.”
  • Rev. Quadrupani
“Doesn’t St. Paul tell us that we must sanctify even our mundane actions like eating, drinking, sleeping? Therefore, a restful moment, an honest recreation, can also be sanctified by love and thus transformed into love.”
– Fr. Lorenzo Sales
 
mattd327 said:
Hello I’m currently unemployed due to my disability so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying scripture and praying the rosary. I’m impressed with Saints like Padre Pio who prayed the Rosary up to 50 times per day. Is it common for saints and monks to spend all day in prayer? I’m thinking about possibly devoting my day to prayer and study because the internet gets on my nerves.
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As long as you are unemployed I think it is wonderful you have time to structure your day around prayer and scripture study.
You might want to start a journal also.
 
I don’t think I can pull it off. I pray the rosary a lot but if it’s not common to pray it all day I don’t think I can do it. God bless.
 
mattd327 said:
I don’t think I can pull it off. I pray the rosary a lot but if it’s not common to pray it all day I don’t think I can do it. God bless.
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You don’t need to pray the Rosary over and over again. Just once is fine.
 
I know but I enjoy it. If Padre Pio recommended it to be prayed often then we should do it. I enjoy it.
 
Is it common for saints and monks to spend all day in prayer?
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In answer to your question: Yes, certain contemplative monastic orders do spend their entire day in prayer. Perhaps the most well-known order that does so is the Carthusian order.

At Carthusian monasteries, laymen take care of cooking, cleaning, and other more mundane matters. The Carthusian monks, however, spend their entire day in prayer, Mass, rosaries, and the Divine Office.

There is a great movie about the Carthusians called “Into Great Silence” and book of a similar title. When they are not engaged in communal prayer, they are required to be silent for the majority of their time.

Some saints were hermits, and engaged in a life not unlike the Carthusians.
 
StGerardMajella said:
In answer to your question: Yes, certain contemplative monastic orders do spend their entire day in prayer. Perhaps the most well-known order that does so is the Carthusian order.

At Carthusian monasteries, laymen take care of cooking, cleaning, and other more mundane matters. The Carthusian monks, however, spend their entire day in prayer, Mass, rosaries, and the Divine Office.

There is a great movie about the Carthusians called “Into Great Silence” and book of a similar title. When they are not engaged in communal prayer, they are required to be silent for the majority of their time.

Some saints were hermits, and engaged in a life not unlike the Carthusians.
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I have seen the movie. Carthusian monks do work, for example chopping the wood necessary to heat themselves in winter. Work is good for the soul.

However most monastics would agree that work is a form of prayer.
 
mattd327 said:
Hello I’m currently unemployed due to my disability so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying scripture and praying the rosary. I’m impressed with Saints like Padre Pio who prayed the Rosary up to 50 times per day. Is it common for saints and monks to spend all day in prayer? I’m thinking about possibly devoting my day to prayer and study because the internet gets on my nerves.
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You must know how long it takes to pray a complete Rosary. It is not possible he prayed 50 in a day.
 
You people don’t know what you are talking about.

For a monk, work is prayer. They are not exclusive of each other and a monk can pray while he works. Monks spend their entire lives in prayer.

You all need to read Praying with Benedict by Korneel Vermeiren OCSO.

-Tim-
 
I have seen the movie. Carthusian monks do work, for example chopping the wood necessary to heat themselves in winter. Work is good for the soul.
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Lay Carthusians handle the mundane chores - preparation of food, chopping wood, etc.

The actual Carthusian monks themselves, however, engage in very little work. The focus of the monk is entirely on contemplative prayer.

Each Carthusian’s room is attached to a small outside garden. The Carthusian monk will plant small gardens there, and maintain the general upkeep of their rooms. Beyond that, their entire life is dedicated to contemplative prayer.

For monks of other orders - Benedictines, etc. - some are attracted to the Carthusian way of life because of its contemplative mode of living. Other orders besides Carthusians do require the monks to be engaged in mundane activities, such as cooking, etc. Not so the Carthusians - The lay Carthusians handle these chores.
 
StGerardMajella said:
Lay Carthusians handle the mundane chores - preparation of food, chopping wood, etc.

The actual Carthusian monks themselves, however, engage in very little work. The focus of the monk is entirely on contemplative prayer.

Each Carthusian’s room is attached to a small outside garden. The Carthusian monk will plant small gardens there, and maintain the general upkeep of their rooms. Beyond that, their entire life is dedicated to contemplative prayer.

For monks of other orders - Benedictines, etc. - some are attracted to the Carthusian way of life because of its contemplative mode of living. Other orders besides Carthusians do require the monks to be engaged in mundane activities, such as cooking, etc. Not so the Carthusians - The lay Carthusians handle these chores.
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Carthusian monks do work (manual labour), about 3 hours a day:

chartreux.org/en/monks/carthusian-day.php

Each cell has a workshop on the ground floor.

chartreux.org/en/carthusian-way.php
 
Their is nothing wrong with praying, pray helps us coup with today’s stress whether it be in our now family ,or outside the family,I pray in the morning when I go for walks I pray the Rosary,and I pray too Mary before I turn in too go too sleep,and I also pray if the stress in my home is too much,I ask Jesus too give me strength too make it threw the night, I also ask Mary too come too my aid too help me remain calm during what,s going on that could get me mad at them,so pray is good ,pray gives me peace of mine.
 
mattd327 said:
Hello I’m currently unemployed due to my disability so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying scripture and praying the rosary. I’m impressed with Saints like Padre Pio who prayed the Rosary up to 50 times per day. Is it common for saints and monks to spend all day in prayer? I’m thinking about possibly devoting my day to prayer and study because the internet gets on my nerves.
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By all means give this day to God. Let God lead you in your prayer.
 
mattd327 said:
Hello I’m currently unemployed due to my disability so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying scripture and praying the rosary. I’m impressed with Saints like Padre Pio who prayed the Rosary up to 50 times per day. Is it common for saints and monks to spend all day in prayer? I’m thinking about possibly devoting my day to prayer and study because the internet gets on my nerves.
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Outside of the Carthusians, it’s not that common for monks, (possible future saints) to spend their entire day in prayer. Praying is good for the soul and all, but it’s a very hard lifestyle to endure, praying almost the entire day.
 
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