How often????????????

[ANGELIC_PEACE]

how often do you personally pray in the day?..do you have a special time set aside for prayers or do you pray anytime?..what prayers do you say?..what is your advice to somebody wanting to pray more but doesnt know how to motivate themself?

 

[Will_B]

How often do we pray?

That is a very individual thing… Like how often do you talk to your spouse?

The closer you are to God in your relationship (or the more in love with God you are) the more you pray… Some are in constant prayer. Some just once a day, but would love to pray more often.

Structured prayer is good.
Prayer from the heart is better… Although, structured prayer can be from the heart.

Myself, I pray often, but not enough… I pray when I hurt, or a family member is hurting. I pray to give thanks when something wonderful happens… I should give thanks for the daily things God does for me, but often I fail to do so.

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

My dear friend

St Paul says we should pray without ceasing. It’s possible to pray 24/7 by doing the prayer of always doing Gods will, the prayer of keeping the presence of God, and if you have a cross this is a priceless prayer you can offer. You need to have some time for meditation or contemplation each day too. Even 20 mins is ok to start. The greatest prayer is Holy Mass. I’d start trying to get to daily Mass and receive the sacraments very often. A rosary is great. Its a big job but the prayer life must be built up over time to be unceasing, never stopping. Prayer is any type of communication with God and some prayers are more precious in Gods eyes than others but God is Love and He created us to love Him and all He really wants is our love ultimately. So I would slowly build up trying to ensure my prayer had a lot of love in it. If we feel no love then the sacrificial love we offer is the greatest love we can offer God. So no matter how we feel we can please God. If your serious about the spiritual life you need a spiritual director though. It takes a lifetime to achieve Gods will for you which is the degree of holiness He wants from you. When your ready He takes you. We should see ourselves as very sacred, and very holy if we’re in grace. If we’re in grace we are saints. To be canonisable Saints we must amass much grace though.
I hope this helps. Good luck on your journey if the question was for yourself.

God bless you dear friend:thumbsup:
John

 

[ljubim]

St Paul says we should pray without ceasing

I was just thinking the same thing

I find it really easy to pray in the car. A longer drive, I say the Rosary. A shorter one, the Divine Mercy. And constantly thank God for things that you see that are beautiful, or for nice people, or ask Him for the conversion of mean and twisted people. If you’re having trouble with the motivation maybe get an Orthodox prayer rope (I’ve been meaning to get one myself!) And just say the Jesus Prayer over and over (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner) That’s taken from the Bible somewhere I believe. Anyway, it is bigger with our Eastern brothers, but is used in the Catholic church as well. The “experts” recommend saying the prayer on a sort of beat with your heart, so that if you do it enough then you’ll find yourself thinking it without even meaning to. It’s such a beautiful prayer too! Similar to the Divine Mercy.

Also look into ejaculations (I know, not what you think it means), which are short prayers or exclamations that you can say mentally over and over again. For example, Jesus! is a really simple one. Or Lord Jesus, wash me in Thy precious blood. And there’s really an infinite number of these.

Say the Guardian Angel prayer as well when either you wake up or get into the car (or step out of the door). Never forget that God has placed one of His angels with you to guide you and protect you

Also you should buy a few medals and have your priest bless them, and wear one forever(even guys), except when you go to bed. For me, it’s as if they remind me to pray, I can’t really describe it. Just like Holy Water feels ‘different’ than regular water, so wearing a blessed medal is different from any other necklace. For example I have a Saint Benedict medal, which is one of the two best, after the Miraculous Medal, and whenever I’m wearing it I literally cannot stop thinking about God and the Church. There’s a really beautiful prayer written on the Medal as well, with the first letter of each word in Latin on each side. Benedict was an exorcist, and drove evil out of so many people that the medal is seen as a way of constant intercession to St. Benedict to protect you from the devil and his works. Similar with the Miraculous Medal… only this one has Mary behind it (she gave it to one of the saints) and people who wear it have undergone massive conversions and miracles, which is why they changed the name to Miraculous Medal (from the Medal of the Immaculate Conception).

I would recommend reading the book, How To Be Happy, How To Be Holy by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan. It’s awesome, giving you really detailed and meaningful desciptions of a bunch of different prayers, and about prayer in general. It makes you think!!

Mainly you really need to get into it emotionally. Don’t only love God through your actions, literally love Him. Get into your head that He has a hand in every little miniscule happening in your life, and once you begin to see it, then you’ll be so grateful for all that He does, that you won’t be able to stop praying.

Also, don’t just pray, LISTEN!! He has sooo much to tell you! For example, He’s been telling me to go pray outside an abortion clinic I’m really scared and was kind of trying to interpret things a different way, but I really can’t deny it anymore! (BTW I’m 17 and am going with a bunch of high school friends… We’re really pumped but already the devil is showing up, people who I thought were my friends are getting really upset that I’m doing this. And that only tells me more, based on the devil’s response to our plans, that we’re doing what God wants us to do.) Just listen, and from the incredible messages God sends you, you’ll only want to keep praying more.

Oh, and if you’re bigger on the just-talking things, not really organized pre-written prayers, remember the form that all of the traditional prayer take: Praise, Asking for something, Thanks.

*** I forgot to mention novenas!! They’re so short, and the constancy of saying them for something really important each night is beautiful. They have a huge effect!!

(PS, always pray before meals too. You probably do but just saying, even if it’s a snack you should pray.)

Oh gosh that was long Hope that might help

 

[NPC]

As others have said, it really varies so much from person to person as there are so many ways in which one can communicate with the Lord.

For me, I try to pray several times a day. As John Russell just said, the greatest prayer is the Holy Mass. I wouldn’t say I get to Mass every day of the week - probably 5 out of 7 days. When the great Archbishop Sheen was urging people (especially priests) to make a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament every day, he said that to make the Holy Hour only sporadically - when one feels like it - often makes the Hour a sort of interruption to one’s day, whereas if it was made every day the absence of the Holy Hour would be an interruption to their day. I think the same goes for Mass - probably for prayer generally too - if I miss Mass during the week on a day when I’d normally go, I really feel like I’m missing out greatly.

I think it’s important to make oneself aware of God’s presence throughout the day. For example, taking just a minute at midday and then again in the evening to recall the Incarnation and Christ coming amongst us by praying the Angelus. ljubim mentioned ejaculations - these are a great way to talk to God during the day, especially when you’re rushing about. I simply say “Thanks be to God” several times a day - for various and very simple things: for example, if I just make it to the bus on time, or if I just escape a heavy rain shower, or even for making it across a busy road safely! “Thanks be to God” is the last thing I say before going to sleep each night!

Finally, there are some other structured prayers which I frequently turn to. I try to pray compline each night, and sometimes I’ll pray vespers in the late afternoon. I like to sing the psalms as long as there’s nobody else home to hear my singing! From time to time I pray the Rosary - especially when I’m feeling strongly tempted by something. And last, but certainly not least, Scripture reading - no one can get enough of this one! I’ve just started a plan (which I got online) for reading the whole Bible through in one year. This will be really good for me as I am all too unfamiliar with the Old Testament writings.

 

[ANGELIC_PEACE]

How often do we pray?

That is a very individual thing… Like how often do you talk to your spouse?

The closer you are to God in your relationship (or the more in love with God you are) the more you pray… Some are in constant prayer. Some just once a day, but would love to pray more often.

Prayer fromThats true

 

[Breviarylover]

There are many ways to pray…Daily Mass…Divine Office…Rosary…Chaplet of Divine Mercy…

You can always give glory to God.

If your state in life is to work, you can give glory to God through work. If your state in life is school, you can give glory to God through school.

Pray unceasing!

 

[daughterofeve]

…what is your advice to somebody wanting to pray more but doesnt know how to motivate themself?

That is a very individual thing…

It sounds like the consensus is pretty much the same.

Prayer is putting yourself in the presence of God. Yes, we are all in the presence of God continually, but it is the acknowledgement and acceptance that you are in the presence of God that makes it prayer. Formal prayer is not the only kind.

Pray, pray always… how does one do this? By acknowledging Him always. Being aware of Him in everything, you think ,do and say. Just reading a religious book, the Bible, etc. You will find the rest will come.

Also look into ejaculations (I know, not what you think it means), which are short prayers or exclamations that you can say mentally over and over again. For example, Jesus! is a really simple one. Or Lord Jesus, wash me in Thy precious blood. And there’s really an infinite number of these.

Two of my favorites are Jesus, Jesus, Jesus (from the Holy Name of Jesus devotion) and Jesus, help me (from the Sacred Heart devotion).

You will be turning off the TV and picking up that book, instead. Instead of stopping off at Starbucks for that $4.00 cup of coffee, pull into the church and just light a candle, be sure to genuflect before the tabernacle. You don’t even have to stop and say that prayer, He already knows. Of course if you have the time why not, you would have stood in line at Starbuck‘s anyway? Don’t have change leave the twenty and then you can stop anytime and just light one, keep mental note of how many until the twenty runs out.

Resign yourself that it will never be enough, and just keep doing what you can when you can. More important don’t beat yourself up, if you forget, just do it, don‘t use it as a reason to quit.

Ask for the graces to continue to work at developing your relationship with Him.

With God’s graces…