Are you saying Prayers everyday?

[DrBull]

I am saying Prayers almost everyday, sometimes even couple of times in the day and sometimes I am not saying Them for a long time.

 

[Michael_C]

I say them with my mouth every morning and I am trying to pray once in the afternoon, evening and night. What worries me is that I don’t 100% of the time say them with my heart. That’s the trick…

 

[jrabs]

I’m gonna let you in on what seems to be the biggest well- kept secret. The more time you give to God in prayer each and every day- the more God will multiply your time for other things. Kindof like the fish and loaves miracle. Somehow God will give you back an abundance of time in your day.

Didn’t St Francis say something like - pray for half an hour daily, unless you are really busy. Then pray for an hour.

Not sure who said that (in a very paraphrased way) Maybe someone else said that - but it’s one of God’s daily miracles for His faithful.

 

[felra]

jrabs:

I’m gonna let you in on what seems to be the biggest well- kept secret. The more time you give to God in prayer each and every day- the more God will multiply your time for other things. Kindof like the fish and loaves miracle. Somehow God will give you back an abundance of time in your day.

How true this is. I always compare it to a airport walk way conveyer belt strip where you are walking in God’s economy. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[jrabs]

Michael C:

I say them with my mouth every morning and I am trying to pray once in the afternoon, evening and night. What worries me is that I don’t 100% of the time say them with my heart. That’s the trick…

I saw a fascinating show about St Terese on her spiritual dryness and the problems she had in prayer. It explained that she had a severe problem praying the rosary - did not find any spiritual encouragement in this and was distracted often. HOWEVER, the important thing was to keep it up and keep it up. Persevere regardless of the lack of warm fuzzies. It’s in the dry times that one gains the most blessings.

 

[Fergal]

We must be careful about our definition of prayer. “Prayer”, St. Teresa of Avila says, “is a lifting of the heart and the mind to God.”
Vocal prayer is the way we begin the journey to contemplative prayer. Dedicatiion to vocal prayer will advance a soul rapidly towards contemplative prayer.
I have now only begun to realise that most of my day is spent in prayer. I would say it is broken into 20% vocal and 60% contemplative (being aware of the initmate presence of God) along with 10% offered through my situation. My day, and all I make of it, is offered to God through early morning Mass . My teaching is consecrated to Him, present in the Blessed Sacrament.

What about the other 10% well there are times where I get wrapped up in all I do that I forget to sanctify the moment.

A saying I saw once said “Did you pray today or did you simply say your prayers?”

 

[lonnienord]

i pray as much as i remember. I practice HIS presence!! Which means that HE is always with me and i try to be always aware of that and talk with HIM frequantly.

i also say the LORD’s prayer at least once a day.

sometimes i pray the rosary sometimes i say the rosary. Both are good but if i can do it i would rather pray.

all for JESUS!!
lonnie

 

[Tantum_ergo]

sometimes i pray the rosary sometimes i say the rosary. Both are good but if i can do it i would rather pray.

Forgive me, but what is the difference here? I understand that there is a difference between deep, full prayer and just “rote saying” words, but you appear to say that both the “praying” and the “saying” are good, but you prefer “prayer”. Do you mean that you would rather just pray the rosary in its fullest sense, rather than simply “say” it in a perfunctory manner?

Otherwise, I just don’t get the semantics of “pray” v. “say”.

 

[rjmporter]

I pray morning and evening prayer from the liturgy of the hours (liturgyhours.org/). Praying the Psalms and canticles of the scriptures is an amazing experience. I rarely want to stop.

 

[gardenswithkids]

I pray everyday, but my prayer life has been dry for the last few months. Some of the time I used to use for praying I now spend here on the Catholic Answers forum

I think I understand what someone said about the “praying” versus “saying” prayers. Prayers such as the rosary (and ones from prayer books) I can use to meditate on and speak to God, or I can just make my mouth move. In this dry time, I think it’s my mouth only that’s moving. Right now, it’s alot easier to speak to strangers on the computer than God. I tried to cut back the number of prayers I read in books in order to focus more on the ones I did pray; but it seems I only managed to cut back.

If anyone has suggestions for getting through the dry times of prayer, I’d love to read them. I used to find such strength from my prayer life. Maybe I still have that strength, but it doesn’t feel like it once did.

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Yes, there really hasn’t been a day since my confirmation that I have not prayed. But mostly I pray while walking, or sitting on a bench, or camping out in the woods, or at sea on a ship, or any where on this planet where there isn’t a Roman Catholic church for me to go.

I usually don’t pray for myself though, because I find myself doing all right on God’s green earth, and I always pray for those less fortunate than myself.

 

[mtr01]

rjmporter:

I pray morning and evening prayer from the liturgy of the hours (liturgyhours.org/). Praying the Psalms and canticles of the scriptures is an amazing experience. I rarely want to stop.

I also pray these offices as well as the night office in addition to my own personal prayers and the Rosary. I do still find myself relying on vocal and meditative prayer as I try to advance in my prayer life. I’m still working on that pesky detachment issue that I’ll have to resolve before I can hope to experience any infused contemplative prayer (so say Sts. Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross).

One little thing I did that has helped me in my quest to “pray always” is to get a watch with an hourly chime. That way, if I get too involved in worldly things, it reminds me to focus my thoughts back to God, and I’ll say a brief invocation (like “Jesus I trust in You”, or the Jesus Prayer) to get me back on track.

 

[Annunciata]

lonnienord:

i pray as much as i remember. I practice HIS presence!! Which means that HE is always with me and i try to be always aware of that and talk with HIM frequantly…

This is my most important way of praying…

 

[Aureole]

I try to keep to a prayer in the morning and one before retiring to bed at night. Also I manage to pray the Rosary often.

Right now I’m trying to commit a few prayers to memory so I can recite them when and where I need them.

 

[puzzleannie]

for a long time I have been trying to get away from “saying” prayers to “praying” prayers, which has taken me from doing a lot of talking to doing a lot of listening. I have reduced the number of prayers and devotions I used to say, and concentrated on praying the Liturgy of the Hours reverently, attentively, and spending an hour in front of the blessed Sacrament. I try to keep an attitude of openness to God, of contemplation, and gently reign in my wandering attention when I stray (about every 3 minutes).

 

[Sir_Hubert]

My daily prayer life includes The Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary along with a handful of other personal prayers. These combined with other spiritual readings, and reflections on the daily Scripture readings, take up about 2 hours of my day. I can’t imagine a day without prayer.

… “So could you not watch with me one hour?” Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation … Matt 26:40-41 (RSV-CE)

In His Peace!

 

[CARose]

I also pray the liturgy of the Hours, along with 1/2 hr contemplative meditation and daily Mass. Some days, e.g. if I have a long drive, I also say the rosary.

Each school morning, while driving my daughter to school we say what I call a Rosette. It’s an Our Father, 3 Hail Mary’s, a Glory Be, Fatima Decade Prayer, St. Michael the Archangel Prayer and a Guardian Angel Prayer. I love knowing I’ve sent her to school armed for whatever might come her way. Also, it prevents us from Mother / Daughter gossip that might otherwise occupy our time.

I don’t include the Night Office in my prayers, but I feel I should be stepping up to include it.

On most days, I try to get in at least some solid Catholic reading.

I need to spend less time in these forums though!

CARose

 

[Bill_A]

I pray in My Sleep.

 

[whit]

CARose:

I also pray the liturgy of the Hours, along with 1/2 hr contemplative meditation and daily Mass. Some days, e.g. if I have a long drive, I also say the rosary.

A cou;ple of things. I am still trying to learn the “Christian Praysers” version of the Liturgy. I also wish I could get into the habit of a 1/2 hour of contemplation but I try to say the Rosary each day. I would like to do daily Mass but I have a physical problem there.

Each school morning, while driving my daughter to school we say what I call a Rosette. It’s an Our Father, 3 Hail Mary’s, a Glory Be, Fatima Decade Prayer, St. Michael the Archangel Prayer and a Guardian Angel Prayer. I love knowing I’ve sent her to school armed for whatever might come her way. Also, it prevents us from Mother / Daughter gossip that might otherwise occupy our time.

CARose

Your Rosette idea with your daughter is great.

One of the ways I pray is that I just tell God “I love you Lord”. I just say it. Short. Sweet.

I have a trick I use. It is a palm sign of the cross “prayer”. Open your left hand, with your right hand pull your thumb vertically down the open palm of your left hand and then come back and cross that vertical with a bar. That is the sign of the cross in your palm and you can do it unobtrusively and you are the only one who knows your praying.

Anyway, yes, I pray every day.
God bless
pax et bonum
Whit (sfo)

 

[MikeMaturenMDiv]

I am a Postulant in the Holy Family Institute…adn institute of consecrated life for married and widowed people that is recognized by the Vatican. It is part of the Pauline family (Society of St. Paul, Daughters of St. Paul, etc). As such, we follow the prayer life of the Paulines. This is probably about a half hour daily.

In addition to that, I try to pray the Rosary as often as possible. I travel in my car daily, so I have it on CD, and that helps. I am hoping to find a nearby place that hold Eucharistic Adoration as well.

Finally, I am trying to be more faithful about attending daily Mass…the ULTIMATE prayer.

Br. Mike Maturen, MDiv

Aureole:

I try to keep to a prayer in the morning and one before retiring to bed at night. Also I manage to pray the Rosary often.

Right now I’m trying to commit a few prayers to memory so I can recite them when and where I need them.