Help! I have trouble praying

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Angel7

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This probably comes from OCD and Scrupulousity. I am very distracted, and It is hard for me to pray.

but there is a second issue.

I feel like it is innapropriate to pray when I am dirty. I think it is wrong to pray unless, me and the area I am praying in is very clean. and Free from what I think is dirty.

Should I worry about this?
Is this just OCD or Scrupulousity?
 
Yes, you should be concerned. This issue and others you have described in earlier posts are red flags for OCD, which really should be treated. Please ask your parents to take you to your doctor for diagnosis and treatment.

Betsy
 
As of late I have had a really hard time focusing during prayer as well. I have just been taking it much slower and really thinking about what it is I’m trying to say. I have yet to find some way to clear my mind so if you hear of anything, let me know. 🙂
 
I mean. Are the things I’m worrying about actually something I should be worried about.
🙂
I am seeing a psychologist. 🙂
 
Angel7,

Perhaps you might make prayer apart of your compulsion disorder. If you offer up a prayer every time you feel compelled to be concerned about those things that trouble you the most - you might find yourself praying unceasingly. That is, make your OCD your ‘offering up’ to God. Make it your service and love to Him who is dwelling in your and is fully apart of your life. 🙂

Yoseph Daviyd​

 
=Angel7;6963987]This probably comes from OCD and Scrupulousity. I am very distracted, and It is hard for me to pray.
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but there is a second issue.
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I feel like it is innapropriate to pray when I am dirty. I think it is wrong to pray unless, me and the area I am praying in is very clean. and Free from what I think is dirty.
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Should I worry about this?
Is this just OCD or Scrupulousity?
Click to expand...
Early Masses were said in caves!

Jesus was born in a BARN!

Try to avoid LONG prayers, and instead pray often short prayers such as…

Jesus I love you

Lord help me

Thank you Jesus

Jesus and Mary please save souls

Queen of the most Holy Rosary; pray fo us

Lord: By your Cross and Resurection you have set us free; you are the Savior of the world

It’s not “how long we pray” BUT how often we pray that God wants.👍

Love and prayers,
Pat
 
Angel7 said:
I mean. Are the things I’m worrying about actually something I should be worried about.
🙂
I am seeing a psychologist. 🙂
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Glad to hear that!

No, there is nothing wrong with praying in dirty surroundings. Think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, going about the streets of India picking up the dying from the mess and treating them with compassion. Surely she was praying, and surely she and her surroundings were often quite dirty.

It’s nice to pray in clean, neat, tidy surroundings when you yourself are also clean and tidy, but this is not a requirement. There is no sin in praying in a messy room before you have your shower. 🙂

Betsy
 
Angel7 said:
This probably comes from OCD and Scrupulousity. I am very distracted, and It is hard for me to pray.

but there is a second issue.

I feel like it is innapropriate to pray when I am dirty. I think it is wrong to pray unless, me and the area I am praying in is very clean. and Free from what I think is dirty.

Should I worry about this?
Is this just OCD or Scrupulousity?
Click to expand...
Either way, you need some mental health treatment. Check your insurance plan for a preferred provider, and see a licensed professional clinical counselor.

In addition to that, you might consider seeking out contempletive prayer experience. If there is a Benedictine Monastery near you, or other religious community that has a focus on this kind of prayer they will have spiritual direction, reading material, and prayer experiences that will help support your efforts. Your situation is not that uncommon, and prayer is a skill that gets better with practice.

I also recommend regular time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Start with whatever you can tolerate, even if it is five minutes. Think of it as a discipline like runnning. You start with whatever you can do, then build.

Also, study the lives in the NT and the saints. You will find that all of them prayed when they were downright filthy. Jesus was practically unrecognizable when He prayed from the cross. Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in a dungeoun, where they were chained up. It could not have been a clean experience. 😃
 
prayerchanges said:
As of late I have had a really hard time focusing during prayer as well. I have just been taking it much slower and really thinking about what it is I’m trying to say. I have yet to find some way to clear my mind so if you hear of anything, let me know. 🙂
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I think the best thing is not to try to clear the mind. This is like creating a vacuum, which nature abhors. It is better to fill the mind with the appropriate content, scripture and prayers. The more we practice, the longer we can tolerate the silence, and move into a pure contemplation of Christ without distraction. However, in this noisy day and age, it is a very difficult skill to develop and maintain.

Sometimes turning off the noise - radio, tv, mp3’s etcc more often and for longer periods helps us to develop a more contemplative mindset.

It is also helpful, rather than struggling with the mental clutter, just to sit back and observe it, then put it on a cloud and let it float away. Think of it like a daisy petal. The mind wanders out, and you gently take hold of it and draw it back to the center. If you have to do this every minute, that is ok. Just observe “ok, there my mind went again, Dear Lord. Let my mind and heart be filled with your presence”. This consistent returning again will result in fewer incidents of wandering.
 
There is also one other problem.

I made a promise once, and I believe that the promise requires me to pray for Three Specific Intentions every day. Some days I don’t pray for The Three Intentions and I pray for The Three Intentions twice the next day. Currently, I need to pray for The Three Intentions 3 times. So I plan on praying twice today and twice the next day.

Is this Okay?🙂
 
guanophore said:
Either way, you need some mental health treatment. Check your insurance plan for a preferred provider, and see a licensed professional clinical counselor.

In addition to that, you might consider seeking out contempletive prayer experience. If there is a Benedictine Monastery near you, or other religious community that has a focus on this kind of prayer they will have spiritual direction, reading material, and prayer experiences that will help support your efforts. Your situation is not that uncommon, and prayer is a skill that gets better with practice.

I also recommend regular time in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Start with whatever you can tolerate, even if it is five minutes. Think of it as a discipline like runnning. You start with whatever you can do, then build.

Also, study the lives in the NT and the saints. You will find that all of them prayed when they were downright filthy. Jesus was practically unrecognizable when He prayed from the cross. Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in a dungeoun, where they were chained up. It could not have been a clean experience. 😃
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I wish I could spend time In The Presence of Our Lord In The Blessed Sacrament.
I think my parents wouldn’t allow me to.
 
May God’s Peace, Love, Mercy, Healing, Graces and Blessings be with you and to all!

Our Good Lord loves you dearly and is pleased just by the mere thought of Him. Everybody at some point in their life has been distracted and had difficulty focusing on saying the prayer. For me when this happens, I just tell Our Good Lord that I am unable to say my regular prayer at that time, and lift my heart & mind to God instead and spend that time in silence in His presence. God knows what is in our heart, He understands what we are going through. Our Good Lord allows this to happen to us so that we may persevere in prayer. Sometimes we say so many vocal prayers, we do most of the talking that we forget to be silent and listen to what God has to say. There are times that He just wants us to spend that time with Him in silence. It is in these moments that He speaks to us in our heart.

God is utmost Purity and Holiness, that even heaven or the angels would pale in comparison. But yet Our Good God, Who created ALL decided to become man & was born of all places in a filthy manger where the animals lived with all their poop and He didn’t mind being worshiped there by Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, the 3 kings & the shepherds.

God does not look at the external. What is important is the purity of our heart, the purity of our intentions, doing things out of love for God than out of obligation, for these are more pleasing to God.

If you did not fulfill the promise that you made to God because you FORGOT to do it at that time, it is OK, it is not a sin. God knows we are human and He knows that if you only remembered it that you would do them anyway. He is not this kind of God waiting for you to miss your prayer and ready to strike you if you fail. He is not this kind of God that is waiting for you to make up for the exact amount of prayer intentions that you missed. Our God is All Loving, All Good, All Holy, All Forgiving and All Merciful.

God does not want you to live in fear & misery. He wants you to live your Catholic Christian life in joy and in peace. So, what you can do is just to tell Our Good Lord Jesus that in union with His sufferings on the Cross, you are unceasingly renewing the prayer intentions that you have promised Him so that even if you forget, God has already accepted the intentions of your heart. Your prayer intentions are renewed unceasingly because you have united it with God, so it becomes infinite, endless. You do not have to limit yourself to just the prayer intentions but instead do the same by unceasingly offering EVERYTHING (joys, pains, sufferings, sorrow, all that we are, all that we have, all that we gain, our entire being without reserve) to Jesus in union with His sufferings on the Cross.

If you cannot go to the chapel for adoration, you can go online:

64.247.253.34:8000/view/index.shtml

Take care & God bless!

Praying for you and for all!
 
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