O
Ohokplease
Guest
So, I am a Catholic convert. I have been Catholic since June of this year.
Back before I was catholic, my nightly prayers usually consisting of about 5-10 minutes of just kneeling down, and asking God to help someone or occasionally just giving thanks.
When I became Catholic, I began to pray more, but still very little with scripted prayers.
Recently, about 2 weeks ago, I discovered in my missal a section of “Morning Prayers” and “Evening Prayers”. I’ve been saying the evening prayer (about 5-6 small paragraphs or so) more or less every night or every other night since then. Although I found that they were lovely prayers, and they helped me to really feel the Lord, they have since lost their allure. After a couple weeks of reading over the same words again and again, it gets harder and harder.
How often should one say scripted prayers? I feel like it’s one thing to say the traditional prayers like “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” on a daily basis, but a different sort of jazz to read through the same five paragraphs every evening. They were beautiful and inspiring at first, but now each night the words are more and more forced.
What would be best for me to do? Should I try to find an assortment of prayers, and maybe read a different scripted prayer every few nights? I usually pray in my own words for a bit before reading any scripted prayers. I don’t quite feel like just praying in my own words with a few small tradition prayers is totally sufficient, especially since I have pretty bad ADHD and it’s way too easy for my mind to wander off track when I’m not reading anything - sometimes I can spend an hour and yet have about 20 minutes in serious prayer. Scripted prayers keep me grounded, but I just can’t read the same one every night.
Back before I was catholic, my nightly prayers usually consisting of about 5-10 minutes of just kneeling down, and asking God to help someone or occasionally just giving thanks.
When I became Catholic, I began to pray more, but still very little with scripted prayers.
Recently, about 2 weeks ago, I discovered in my missal a section of “Morning Prayers” and “Evening Prayers”. I’ve been saying the evening prayer (about 5-6 small paragraphs or so) more or less every night or every other night since then. Although I found that they were lovely prayers, and they helped me to really feel the Lord, they have since lost their allure. After a couple weeks of reading over the same words again and again, it gets harder and harder.
How often should one say scripted prayers? I feel like it’s one thing to say the traditional prayers like “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” on a daily basis, but a different sort of jazz to read through the same five paragraphs every evening. They were beautiful and inspiring at first, but now each night the words are more and more forced.
What would be best for me to do? Should I try to find an assortment of prayers, and maybe read a different scripted prayer every few nights? I usually pray in my own words for a bit before reading any scripted prayers. I don’t quite feel like just praying in my own words with a few small tradition prayers is totally sufficient, especially since I have pretty bad ADHD and it’s way too easy for my mind to wander off track when I’m not reading anything - sometimes I can spend an hour and yet have about 20 minutes in serious prayer. Scripted prayers keep me grounded, but I just can’t read the same one every night.