Concentrate when praying

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How do you concentrate when praying or reading scripture?

Do you take yourself away from the hectic lifestyle of kids etc and go somewhere quiet?

How do you concentrate on prayer with the daily noise around you?
 
I can see how hard it would be to concentrate on prayer with a hectic schedule (along with boisterous children, etc.) and I, too, have trouble concentrating in prayer at times. I find it is best to remove myself from the hectic area, and find a dark room - by lighting a candle, I feel I create an atmosphere of serenity. I also find that it is good to close your eyes when you pray and visualize that you are speaking to whomever you are praying to (be it God the Father, Son, or the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Mother, or one of the many saints) in person, but this may not be for you.
 
Well, I tend to find concentrating on prayer difficult during the daily hustle and bustle, so I tend to pray in the morning and evening, since that is when my house is at its quietest. If I want to pray, I just eliminate what hustle and bustle I have control over and make do with that.
 
Concentration in prayer can be very challenging regardless of ones circumstances. Some of the greatest saints had trouble with this. It is very noteworthy that our Lord would often leave His disciples and find a quiet, deserted place to pray. Of course He also prayed with them. We do well to follow His example. We can ask our Lord to help us to pray well and to focus on Him. Sometimes, though, a distraction can be a sign that there are issues or people that need our prayers and so we can surrender our distractions and concerns to Jesus, laying them at the foot of the Cross.

Hope this helps and God bless.
 
Fr. Barron refers to our minds as our “monkey brains”, because the leap from random thought to random thought like a monkey would leap from tree to tree. 🙂 I find when my “monkey brain” sets in, I think “Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That usually pulls my mind back to Christ.

Good luck! And don’t feel badly. A wandering mind is part of our nature. 🙂
 
I usually start off prayer with a prayer for removing distractions and centering me to prayer. I also go to a private room usually where I have a small altar/prayer corner in my closet and kneel before God and focus on images of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. You should develop a prayer room or corner in your house for you to center yourself on God in prayer. There is a good thread on home altars here on the Forums.

God bless!
 
Many thanks.

It is hard to concentrate even when it is quiet. I find it hard not to rush through the prayers I am reading. I try to concentrate but sometimes my mind wanders.
 
I do get moments when my mind sort of gets annoyed that I have to say the rosary or read some morning and evening prayers! I do feel guilty thinking like that. It saddens me as I love God and hate to have these terrible thoughts in my mind!
 
ajecphotos said:
How do you concentrate when praying or reading scripture?

Do you take yourself away from the hectic lifestyle of kids etc and go somewhere quiet?

How do you concentrate on prayer with the daily noise around you?
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Sometimes I can and sometimes I can’t. God is a loving father who looks on us as the father of pre-schoolers would look upon his children - with concern but also a lot of indulgence. God doesn’t call us to be successful; he calls us to be faithful. If we persist despite distractions and aridity, we derive grace because God loves our effort.

St. Josemaria Escriva used to tell people to wave distractions by like a cop directing traffic. it’s a great image and a very helpful one.

I tend to have fewer distractions if I start by making myself aware of being in God’s presence and ask for guidance during prayer. If I get off the rails, I slip into some sort of aspirational prayer until I;'m refocused. This can be “My God, I love you” “Jesus, I trust in you” “lord teach me to pray” and so on. After saying those a few times, I’m soon back on track.
 
I say the rosary when I’m alone. It could be in the car, or when my husband is at work, or even at work when I’m on my lunch break. I don’t like to pray when others are around. The only time I do is when we have a group prayer at work.
 
ajecphotos said:
How do you concentrate when praying or reading scripture?

Do you take yourself away from the hectic lifestyle of kids etc and go somewhere quiet?

How do you concentrate on prayer with the daily noise around you?
Click to expand...
In all honesty, some of us, like me, have minds that drift easily. I know that it is impossible in my own strength to concentrate on prayer (and even reading Scripture that is in more of a prayer format like the Psalms).

The best way that I have found to concentrate on the Rosary is to look at a picture of the mystery that I am supposed to meditate on. 🙂
 
I’m having problems with this myself lately. I live in a very tiny house with my elderly mom, two sisters and my brother-in-law, share a room with my unmarried sister, and everyone but me is a tv addict and I can’t get away from that no matter where I go, it blares and dominates everything (SMALL house). Right now it’s quiet, but I’m so busy enjoying the lack of noise because everyone’s still sleeping, I can’t focus on anything else. Suggestions? I’d like to get back to praying the Rosary, or I used to do the Orthodox Liturgy of the Hours, which to me is easier to follow and was always comforting.
 
=ajecphotos;10210746]How do you concentrate when praying or reading scripture?
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Do you take yourself away from the hectic lifestyle of kids etc and go somewhere quiet?
Click to expand...
How do you concentrate on prayer with the daily noise around you?
Click to expand...
step 1: Ask the Holy Spirit to aid and protect you

step 2. Find a plce [when possible] W/O distractions:thumbsup:
 
I had a small oratory built in my office/study, where I pray the Liturgy of the Hours





It helps pull me out of my daily world for prayer. I also think balance in prayer life is possible. It is possible to overdo it. I am extremely attached to the Divine Office. I am a Benedictine Oblate and struggled with a monastic version (much more work than the LOTH as the psalms are on a one-week cycle). I also love to chant the prayers in Latin. But I found I was under constant tension, especially in the morning as I felt rushed as I have a long commute to get to work.

Since switching to the 4-week LOTH, I have managed to find that the LOTH gives me great stillness. I slowed down the chant rhythm, and now have the time to meditate the psalm after chanting it in latin. The Latin chant, with its beautiful rhythm from the Gregorian psalm modes, is rather like a mantra that pulls one out of the daily noise and allows me to meditate the psalm in French afterwards (my mother tongue is French). It has brought so much peace especially as my family is going through heavy stresses at the moment (mostly professional).

Oddly I had been to presentations on Eastern meditation techniques to create the stillness for prayer, where they preached chanting a mantra for Christian meditation. It never really “caught” with me. Not because I felt any controversy over use of a “non-Catholic” tradition for prayer (if it works… and doesn’t drive you away from the Church), it just didn’t do anything for me.

But in reality I recently concluded that in fact the Church had it’s own “eastern meditation technique” in chanting the psalms… a technique that goes back thousands, not hundreds, of years, and IMHO is none other than at its core a very Judeo-Christian mantra (because the Jewish people also practiced a form of the LOTH).

I think the Rosary too is, if done right is a “mantra”; the repeated Paters and Aves are the mantra, and the focus of the meditation is the many mysteries. I also never really caught on to the Rosary. But with this discovery of sorts I may give it another try.

Getting back to my oratory, I often have to pray the LOTH outside of my oratory, I try to retreat to the “oratory” or “cloister” of my heart to close myself off from my surroundings. It seems to work, although sometimes it’s hard to find the same stillness, especially when I pray the minor hours at work and get interrupted.
 
:tiphat: Thanks for posting the lovely pics of your little oratory, OraLabora. That’s a beautiful idea. And thanks for your insights. I agree that it is possible to overdo prayer. Sometimes one needs to back off and wait for God in expectant silence. A very important, but often over-looked aspect of prayer is allowing God to get a word in edgewise. We were discussing this at a Benedictine Oblate meeting I was at today. I’m not an Oblate myself- I’m a Lay Carmelite- but I enjoy their meetings. The group is so good that people will travel 2-3 hours to attend! For me it’s only 10 minutes away. I sometimes attend Mass there and really love it, including the chanting. My new Pastor is gradually introducing Gregorian chant at my parish and I just love him for it. Sometimes he chants the Eucharistic Prayer- so profoundly beautiful! :highprayer::harp:
 
Update:

I am starting to concentrate a bit more while praying now. Still get moments of mind wandering but not so bad. I do love praying but it can still be challenging, but that’s part of the beauty of learning to communicate with God. To push all other distractions out of the way and get to God!
 
Wake up before everyone else. Perpetual Adoration chapels are generally wonderfully quiet places free from distraction too.
 
I highly recommend waking up before the rest of your house and neighborhood does. Your body will grumble about it, but it’s a great way to set aside a block of time for prayer free from distraction, and it gets your day started off on the right foot. Then when the other people wake up you can welcome them into the day with coffee and a warm smile.
 
Forkfoot said:
I highly recommend waking up before the rest of your house and neighborhood does. Your body will grumble about it, but it’s a great way to set aside a block of time for prayer free from distraction, and it gets your day started off on the right foot. Then when the other people wake up you can welcome them into the day with coffee and a warm smile.
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I do have quiet times during the day but it is still hard at times. I will keep going though!
 
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