How can I become better at praying?

[jgrisso07]

Hey, I’m new to the forums, so I hope this goes in the right place.

I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how I can become more disciplined on praying. I’m saving up for a set of the Liturgy of the Hours, so until then, I got like a mini-version of them. I love praying them, but it seems I always find an excuse not to do it at the moment and the excuses keep piling up until next thing I know, its time to go to sleep. I feel bad about it, and its like the more I try to become disciplined in praying it every day, the more it seems something comes up. So, if anyone has suggestions on how maybe they did it, or they know a way of being able to just help me come up with something, I’d appriciate it. I keep thinking that if I can’t find time to pray two times a day for 5 minutes(instead of the just Hail Marys or the Our Fathers I do at random times in the day) , how could I do it with the Liturgy?

thanks!

 

[Trishie]

Yes, there is formal prayer, and there is the Eucharist, “the source and summit of Christian life.”
but you can also just talk to Jesus about ordinary things happening in your life or others, your hopes. You can share your thought and feelings, doubts and hope, to Jesus as a person. He lived an ordinary life for around thirty years.

Or keep it simple, choose a simple sincere prayer…better than not praying at all. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray He taught them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. If nothing else, maybe be sure to say that, perhaps.

God bless you, Trishie

Prayer isn’t something we have to do, it’s a relationship. While it’s something we ‘should’ do I think our minds try to get out of it. I think we have to work on the relationship with God.

“There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 4:6-7]

“Everything will soon come to an end, so, to pray better, keep a calm and sober mind.” [1Peter 4:7]

Paul pledges that the “Spirit…comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit Himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what He means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.” [Romans 8:26, 27]

 

[panoikei]

The main thing is to keep trying. God knows what’s on your plate. Life is full of distractions. I started praying the rosary by just a few beeds a day… I couldn’t get through even a decade. I also was the same way with the Divin Office that I bought at the beginning of each calendar season they were used…spreading the cost over a year. Give yourself time to learn, adjust and suffer. It’s not easy even if it seems easy. Set aside 20 to 30 minutes for each morning and evening prayer if that is what you’re praying.

The main thing is to keep trying, even if you miss it here and there. Just keep trying. I’m going throug my own dry spell. But I feel whole when I pray it. We have many new distractions and it’s difficult to work through the issues we’re dealing with. But I keep carrying mine everywhere I go. I pray what I can manage to get through and leave the rest up to my guardian angel.

 

[jgrisso07]

Yes, there is formal prayer, and there is the Eucharist, “the source and summit of Christian life.”
but you can also just talk to Jesus about ordinary things happening in your life or others, your hopes. You can share your thought and feelings, doubts and hope, to Jesus as a person. He lived an ordinary life for around thirty years.

Or keep it simple, choose a simple sincere prayer…better than not praying at all. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray He taught them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. If nothing else, maybe be sure to say that, perhaps.

God bless you, Trishie

Prayer isn’t something we have to do, it’s a relationship. While it’s something we ‘should’ do I think our minds try to get out of it. I think we have to work on the relationship with God.

“There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 4:6-7]

“Everything will soon come to an end, so, to pray better, keep a calm and sober mind.” [1Peter 4:7]

Paul pledges that the “Spirit…comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit Himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what He means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.” [Romans 8:26, 27]

See, its the formal prayer I need work on. I’m good when it comes to the informal. As scary as it sounds, I get a lot prayer done driving! But as I want to become a Priest, I need to work on the formal prayer. Since they are required to do the Liturgy of the Hours, I feel I’d like to get into the ‘zone’ of doing it before I enter seminary.

 

[Anniegirl]

I’m sure it will be much easier to do once you are in seminary and you are praying the Offices along with the other seminarians, but for the time being, I would recommend what I try to do, which is start with just one of the Hours (I chose Compline, which is the easiest since it repeats each week) and pray that one every day. Once you get into a routine with that, add another one of the Hours. Also, I had a friend in seminary, and they gave him the set of books, so if you are going soon, maybe you won’t need to buy them. God bless!

 

[Trishie]

Dare I say I’ve actually even kept a copy of Liturgy of the hours on a small table in my home rest-room to kick-start myself when having difficulty? I don’t know your home situation, but I find it helps to leave the book out somewhere where I do the ordinary things of life, like the breakfast table. We have to be cunning with ourselves. The trick is to actually make yourself do the readings faithfully for a couple of weeks, then it’s hard to stop, but once you stop it’s hard to get going again. If it’s a live-in Seminary you shouldn’t have problems to begin and keep it up.

It’s great you hope to be a priest. I’l keep you in my prayers. I got the idea in Lent 1980 that God was calling me to pray for priests, so I keep that going.

God bless, Trishie