Did you forget to pray? Here’s how to make prayer a firm habit that sticks

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https://aleteia.org/2018/10/01/did-...-how-to-make-prayer-a-firm-habit-that-sticks/

It’s easy to say that we are going to pray every day. Then “life happens” and we find ourselves back to our old routines.

What can we do to be more faithful to our prayer lives?

French Trappist monk Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard wrote in his popular book, The Soul of the Apostolate , several keys that can help a person remain committed to daily prayer. One of those keys is to make a firm resolution to pray in the midst of your work…
 
Simply put, if we are breathing, we can pray. One very elementary example is that we can offer each breath in as thanksgiving to God for the gift of life, and each exhalation as praising Him. There are, of course, innumerable other, more profound methods.
 
The kind of prayer that I forget to do is being in the presence of God. It is much easier to remember to pray a specific prayer, like the morning offering. I assume because I find it so hard to sit even 3 minutes in the presence of God, except for some reason, at exposition.
 
When you are praying a specific prayer, you are sitting in the presence of God.

There’s a reason why the Catholic Church has so many specific prayers. They help people to get in the presence of God and stay there.

Being able to just sit silently and focus the empty mind on God is an advanced spirituality that probably not everybody is going to be able to learn or be good at.
 
An example of a specific prayer would be like the Our Father or Hail Mary? I feel the answer is obvious but I’d like to know of other specific prayers if it means I’m in His presence. I was at Adoration yesterday and was so emotional and then towards the end of the day I felt blah again. It made me think of St Teresa of Avila who said some people think by crying tears they have prayed (something like that) but it’s the best I could do.
edit- this question was for TisBear i didn’t see her picture so i wanted to note that but anyone is welcome ofcourse to help thank you.
 
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Yes, any “composed” prayer like Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, dozens of other pre-written prayers you can find in prayer books or on the Internet.

Some Protestants and even some Catholics object to pre-written prayers because they think we should just speak to God spontaneously. I have nothing against just talking to God spontaneously also, and I do that, but not everybody is comfortable doing it, and many of the better-known “pre-written” prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary come from Scripture. The Our Father came directly from Jesus himself, he told his Apostles to pray in that way, so who wouldn’t want to pray the way Jesus himself directed us to do it?

Really any sincere prayer or prayerful thought will put you in God’s presence. He is right there every time you call. He doesn’t care what words you use, it’s the thought that counts.
 
Thank you. I do both then but mostly I talk with my own words, sometimes for a very short time and sometimes very long. Sometimes I even lose track of my thoughts with all the pauses I make and feel like a blubbering ignorant but I mostly always feel better. Even when I think no one hears.
 
I’m kind of confused what they mean by “pray in the midst of your work”. Are they, like, taking time away from work to stop and pray?
 
Yes a specific prayer like Our Father helps, but I don’t notice him unless I really try. Less words helps me to notice him. I find some variant of the “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner” to be helpful. Then I can just sit with a portion of it for a few minutes. I’m going to try to do this each day this week…God willing.
 
One thing I noticed is I’m very drawn to the angels greeting “Hail, …full of grace.”
Sometimes I’ll try to say a rosary or to be frank even a short Hail Mary and really feel bad because (I don’t intend for this to be disrespectful to our faith) I just am not feeling it, or I’m even too mentally drained for a Hail Mary and it doesn’t draw me into that sort of trancelike (for lack of a better word) state as when I feel led to admire that beautiful greeting. I start to imagine how God must have given the angel the order to deliver the news and maybe even the royal greeting she merited,… my mind and soul really get inspired just on those 4 divine words. “Hail, …full of grace.” Wow. I can devote several minutes to just contemplating those words.
 
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Learning about the traditional name of the Hail Mary prayer, i.e. the Angelic Salutation, made me appreciate it more.

At first I didn’t very well understand why the 2nd most elevated prayer in the Church other than the Lord’s Prayer would be repeating something St Gabriel said. The Hail Mary is a prayer of victory.
 
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