Do You Pray Constantly?

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In my quest to become more spiritual and thus closer to Jesus, Paul’s scripture in First Thessalonians 5:17 “pray constantly” keeps coming to mind. I was wondering how those of you who may be more mature in your spirituality manage to do this.
 
First, I recommend the book “True Devotion to Mary” by St. Louis De Montfort:
ewtn.com/library/Montfort/TRUEDEVO.HTM

Avoid the TAN edition if you decide to pick up a hard copy.

After that I recommend a consecration to Our Lady such as:
catholic-church.org/grace/marian/3-hail-marys.htm

As for praying always I recommend offering up everything you do during the day by making a morning offering prayer such as the Fatima Morning Offering Prayer each morning:
catholic.org/clife/prayers/prayer.php?section_id=35&name=Morning
 
Peace Seeker:
In my quest to become more spiritual and thus closer to Jesus, Paul’s scripture in First Thessalonians 5:17 “pray constantly” keeps coming to mind. I was wondering how those of you who may be more mature in your spirituality manage to do this.
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Do I pray constantly? No. Do I try? Yes.

There is a great book written by St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life. It is a book on how to pray better and to “pray without ceasing” through your life work.

For example, As a mother I do not pray without ceasing by going to Mass all day, I do so by being a good mother and offering it up to God. A person pleases God by doing their vocation well. Doing it well is a prayer in and of itself.

God Bless,
Maria
 
Madia, Thanks for your reply, however, I have consecrated (dedicated, given) my life to Jesus. It would never cross my mind to dedicate my life to another human being even Mary the mother of Jesus.

As to praying every morning and giving Jesus my day, I have done that since I was a child. Your response brought me back many years to when I was a third grader. I asked a priest how to get closer to Jesus and his reply was not to worry about it and make sure that I said my morning prayers.

I personally believe that there is a greater depth to spirituality and that is what I seek!!!
Peace Seeker
 
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MariaG:
Do I pray constantly? No. Do I try? Yes.

There is a great book written by St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to a Devout Life. It is a book on how to pray better and to “pray without ceasing” through your life work.

For example, As a mother I do not pray without ceasing by going to Mass all day, I do so by being a good mother and offering it up to God. A person pleases God by doing their vocation well. Doing it well is a prayer in and of itself.

God Bless,
Maria
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Thanks for your reply. I try to do that too, however, God seems to be leading me to a deeper level of spirituality. I will try to find the book!!!

Peace Seeker
 
Madia, Thanks for your reply, however, I have consecrated (dedicated, given) my life to Jesus. It would never cross my mind to dedicate my life to another human being even Mary the mother of Jesus.
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You should remember that in Marian devotion Mary is our guide not our goal. As Christ came into the world through Mary, Marian devotees attempt to go to Christ through Mary. Here’s a passage from True Devotion to Mary:
  1. If then we are establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. If devotion to our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to reject it as an illusion of the devil. But this is far from being the case. As I have already shown and will show again later on, this devotion is necessary, simply and solely because it is a way of reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him faithfully.
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I highly recommend reading at least part I of the book.
 
Peace Seeker:
Thanks for your reply. I try to do that too, however, God seems to be leading me to a deeper level of spirituality. I will try to find the book!!!

Peace Seeker
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It gives a step by step instructions on exactly how a person can get into a deeper prayer life, as well as the making you life’s work a prayer.

Since you seem to have the life’s work part down, I think you will really find the other instructions useful.

You might want to check out your church library first. I know I found my copy there. An old printing with an ugly green cover.

New copies are availble also, I looked and found it right here at our host CA stores.

shop.catholic.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-B0266.html?L+scstore+hhtl9741ff4a7b4a+1132249450

God Bless,
Maria
 
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MariaG:
It gives a step by step instructions on exactly how a person can get into a deeper prayer life, as well as the making you life’s work a prayer.

Since you seem to have the life’s work part down, I think you will really find the other instructions useful.

You might want to check out your church library first. I know I found my copy there. An old printing with an ugly green cover.

New copies are availble also, I looked and found it right here at our host CA stores. 🙂

shop.catholic.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-B0266.html?L+scstore+hhtl9741ff4a7b4a+1132249450

God Bless,
Maria
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Thanks for the info. May God bless you 🙂
 
Thessalonians 5:17 “pray constantly” keeps coming to mind. I was wondering how
In my quest to become more spiritual and thus closer to Jesus, Paul’s scripture in First those of you who may be more mature in your spirituality manage to do this.

Madia, Again, I appreciate your reply. I am a devotee of Jesus not Mary. I do believe that all the recognized and unrecognized saints in heaven can be a help to us and Mary is definitely one of them. My life is consecrated to Jesus!!!

Searching the Holy Scriptures, I do not find anything that tells me to go to Jesus through Mary, however, I do find that in (John 14: 6) “Jesus said: I am the way; I am truth and life. No one can come to the Father except through Me!!!

Peace Seeker
 
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MariaG:
Why the Eastern Forum? If another forum were to be picked, spirituality would probably be better.
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The Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox have always made more explicit reference to the scriptual reference ‘pray without ceasing’ than the West, particularly with respect to the Jesus Prayer.

The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox posters on Catholic Answers tend to hang out mainly on the Eastern forum, hence my suggestion.

If you are aware of Western texts in this area I would be interested to learn of them… 👍
 
Peace Seeker:
Does that mean that St.stands for street rather than Saint???🙂
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I think SaintBenedict was taken, or is it I’m just lazy at typing… :o
 
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St_Benedict:
I think SaintBenedict was taken, or is it I’m just lazy at typing… :o
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Glad I didn’t hurt your feelings:) I just might try the other site!!!
 
Jesus told me that I should pray alone, and with others, He also told me to give Him the first few moments of every situation. St. Paul told us to pray all the time. When I don’t have words to pray I pray in tongues. I believe that a Christian should wake up thinking of Jesus, have Him on their minds all day long, and go to sleep thinking about Jesus.
Bob
 
I dedicate my day to Jesus in morning prayer, and entrust my night to Him in evening prayer, and try and make prayers of recollection during the day, so yes, I pray constantly in that everything I do during the day, and while I sleep is consecrated to Jesus.
 
Peace Seeker:
In my quest to become more spiritual and thus closer to Jesus
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This phraseology strikes my ear with an odd timbre. I doubt you meant this, but spiritual is not a thing that is a tool. Just follow Jesus, then perhaps God will make you more spiritual, so to speak.

Imitate St. Paul’s selfless attitude of service to his mission to the Gentiles. He himself imitated Christ. If every day you know nothing but Jesus, perhaps even suffering with him in some way, like a personal cross, you are on the right path. Jesus set his face to Jerusalem and walked the path, eventually up the path to Calvary, see? The path will probably not seem very glorious or oh, I don’t know. You may not get to be super holy in man’s eyes, but it is the right path.

If you were Catholic, I would tell you to go to daily mass to be with Jesus, and then go out to love and serve, but your profile seems to say you are not. Perhaps read the first 4 or so chapters of 1corinthians to see where St. Paul talks a little about maturity, then, since you are not Catholic.😃 Truly it is talked about in those chapters.
 
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St_Benedict:
The Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox have always made more explicit reference to the scriptual reference ‘pray without ceasing’ than the West, particularly with respect to the Jesus Prayer.

The Eastern Catholic and Orthodox posters on Catholic Answers tend to hang out mainly on the Eastern forum, hence my suggestion.

If you are aware of Western texts in this area I would be interested to learn of them… 👍
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Ahh. I was not aware that one group made more references than another.

The only one I know of is the one I already cited from St. Francis de Sales.

God Bless,
Maria
 
since life has thrown me some difficulties I find myself praying 3 - 7 times a day for about 15 minutes at a time. I don’t know if this is considered a lot or not.
 
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