How to concentrate while praying?

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YellowPancakes

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I’m constantly failing to pay attention to things, especially focusing on someyhing for a long period of time.I often find myself daydreaming, and saying the words but not really meditating while I pray. Any suggestions on what I can do to focus on God rather than contemplating what I should do on the weekend? Thanks! 🙂
 
Have you tried using visuals to focus on while praying? Paintings and the like? I know when I pray the rosary, I stay much more focused of I’m looking at something to do with the current Mystery I’m on. I hope this helps 🙂
 
Sebrina said:
Have you tried using visuals to focus on while praying? Paintings and the like? I know when I pray the rosary, I stay much more focused of I’m looking at something to do with the current Mystery I’m on. I hope this helps 🙂
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Yeah I have. It helps, but only temporarily. My mind’s so distracted by the smallest things. I usually pray with minimal light in my room, which helps me focus a little.
 
I am an expert in daydreaming 🙂 and that’s why I can’t pray the Rosary. But I have been told that one doesn’t need to pray the entire Rosary at a goal for instance. One could spread it out over the entire day or week.

BTW, what is prayer? (We were taught how to pray in yesterday’s Gospel.)

To pray is to talk with God. But about what? About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes, failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petition: and love and reparation. In a word: to get to know Him and to get to know yourself: ‘to get acquainted!’"
St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 91.

For those of us with wandering minds, I believe the solution is to avoid lengthy vocal prayers. Again, prayer is communicating with God. So it mustn’t be lengthy. The Our Father isn’t lengthy. I once heard a priest say that, for those who are too busy to pray, it suffices to pray the Our Father a day.

BTW, before praying, we first have to put ourselves in God’s presence! (cf. St. Francis de Sales) That thus requires some form of meditation/concentration.

Another thing is to give preference to mental, meditative or contemplative prayer. (I am mostly distracted when it comes to lengthy vocal prayers like the Rosary.)

I especially counsel you to practice mental prayer, the prayer of the heart, and particularly that which centers on the life and passion of our Lord. By often turning your eyes on him in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with him. You will learn his ways and form your actions after the pattern of his.
St. Teresa of Avila

However, if you have the gift of mental prayer, you should always give it first place. Afterwards if you cannot say vocal prayers because of your many duties or for some other reason don’t be disturbed on that account…During vocal prayer if you find your heart drawn and invited to interior or mental prayer, don’t refuse to take it up…The mental prayer you substitute for them is more pleasing to God and more profitable for your soul.
St. Francis de Sales

They must be said with strict attention of mind and with affections aroused by the meaning of the words. Do not hurry along and say many things but try to speak from your heart. A single Our Father said with feeling has greater value than many said quickly and hurriedly.
St. Francis de Sales

The essence of prayer, whether it is vocal of “mental,” is paying attention to God, speaking and listening to Him.
(cf St. Teresa of Avila)

Ejaculatory prayers are also good for us.
 
kelvinf said:
I am an expert in daydreaming 🙂 and that’s why I can’t pray the Rosary. But I have been told that one doesn’t need to pray the entire Rosary at a goal for instance. One could spread it out over the entire day or week.

BTW, what is prayer? (We were taught how to pray in yesterday’s Gospel.)

To pray is to talk with God. But about what? About what? About Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes, failures, noble ambitions, daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petition: and love and reparation. In a word: to get to know Him and to get to know yourself: ‘to get acquainted!’"
St. J. Escriva, “The Way”, 91.

For those of us with wandering minds, I believe the solution is to avoid lengthy vocal prayers. Again, prayer is communicating with God. So it mustn’t be lengthy. The Our Father isn’t lengthy. I once heard a priest say that, for those who are too busy to pray, it suffices to pray the Our Father a day.

BTW, before praying, we first have to put ourselves in God’s presence! (cf. St. Francis de Sales) That thus requires some form of meditation/concentration.

Another thing is to give preference to mental, meditative or contemplative prayer. (I am mostly distracted when it comes to lengthy vocal prayers like the Rosary.)

I especially counsel you to practice mental prayer, the prayer of the heart, and particularly that which centers on the life and passion of our Lord. By often turning your eyes on him in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with him. You will learn his ways and form your actions after the pattern of his.
St. Teresa of Avila

However, if you have the gift of mental prayer, you should always give it first place. Afterwards if you cannot say vocal prayers because of your many duties or for some other reason don’t be disturbed on that account…During vocal prayer if you find your heart drawn and invited to interior or mental prayer, don’t refuse to take it up…The mental prayer you substitute for them is more pleasing to God and more profitable for your soul.
St. Francis de Sales

They must be said with strict attention of mind and with affections aroused by the meaning of the words. Do not hurry along and say many things but try to speak from your heart. A single Our Father said with feeling has greater value than many said quickly and hurriedly.
St. Francis de Sales

The essence of prayer, whether it is vocal of “mental,” is paying attention to God, speaking and listening to Him.
(cf St. Teresa of Avila)

Ejaculatory prayers are also good for us.
Click to expand...
Thanks very much. I will try this method of breaking up the rosary into decades across the day. Also I find the ‘mental praying’ concept quite interesting. I will look into it 🙂 thanks again.
 
Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales helped me tremendously.

Prayer takes practice, practice, practice… years and years… and it is still difficult.

-Tim-
 
Prayer takes practice, practice, practice… years and years… and it is still difficult.
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Man do I agree w/ Tim. I take a several deep breaths trying to settle down and clear my head. I also ask the Holy Spirit to remove all such thoughts from my head & help me concentrate. Sometimes I need to do this many times while praying. All depends on what’s going on in my life.

Practice!
 
YellowPancakes said:
I’m constantly failing to pay attention to things, especially focusing on someyhing for a long period of time.I often find myself daydreaming, and saying the words but not really meditating while I pray. Any suggestions on what I can do to focus on God rather than contemplating what I should do on the weekend? Thanks! 🙂
Click to expand...
I received this advise from a Muslim friend and find it works. I have a really hard time focusing sometimes too! When praying, pray out loud—even if you’re in church (in that case whisper)—that will keep the devil from trying to distract you.
 
cradlecatholic5 said:
Man do I agree w/ Tim. I take a several deep breaths trying to settle down and clear my head. I also ask the Holy Spirit to remove all such thoughts from my head & help me concentrate. Sometimes I need to do this many times while praying. All depends on what’s going on in my life.

Practice!
Click to expand...
This is good. Yes, relaxation.

I find it very helpful to relax physically, and actually go through a process when I intend to pray for an extended period. Relaxing the body for prayer is something the Monks taught me while on retreat.

I just sit very still at first, with good posture, and just let my heart rate fall a bit, concentrating on how I am breathing. Sometimes it takes several minutes but eventually the heart rate stabilizes and I begin breathing as if I was sleeping, slowly and deeply. I also try to sense tension in my arms and shoulders, and relax my body. No prayer yet, just breathing. Sometimes I will yawn - I used to hate that - but now I know it is a sign that I am relaxing.

The monk asked us if we had ever heard how someone breathes when they are dying. I have. It is very slow breathing which sounds like the letters A and H… aaaaaaah… haaaaaaa… aaaaaah… haaaaaa… That’s what it sounds like. I sometimes begin praying like that, breathing Abba… Father… Abba… Father… as if they were my last breaths.

When I feel it is time, I place myself in Gods presence, maybe moving to my knees now, reminding myself that God surrounds me, dwells inside of me, and is in heaven listening to me. This is a paraphrase from Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales:

***God, I believe you surround me. Like a fish encounters water or a bird encounters air, you are all around me. If I go up to Heaven, you are there. If I go down to Hell, you are there. If I go to the furthest shore, your right hand holds me fast. There is no place I can escape you. I believe that you are here in this room with me, and that you surround me.

God, I believe that you are inside of me. You have promised that if I obey your commands, that the Father and Son will come to me and make their abode inside of me, and so I believe that I have only to look inward and you are there. I can only see the outside of me, but you see all of me. You see every bone, muscle and drop of blood. You know every thought and action of my life. You know what I have done and what I am about to do. I believe you know me better than I know myself.

God, I believe you are in heaven listening to me now. I believe that you pay attention to your creation and that you pay attention to Christians, especially Christians at prayer. I believe you are listening to the words I pray now. ***

After doing this for several years, I can now place myself in God’s presence very easily by just saying, “God, I believe you surround me, you are inside of me, and that you are listening to me now” and almost immediately recollect myself to God and his immediate presence. I can do this while in line at the grocery store.

I’m sorry to get all personal. 🤷

The point that cradlecatholic5 and I are making is that it isn’t always realistic to think that you can just dive into prayer. We take a few deep breaths before a business presentation, or before meeting someone important like the president of the company, so it makes sense to take some time to prepare for a conversation with the creator of the universe. Taking a few minutes to relax and unwind helps a great deal.

There are many good books on prayer. Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales was tremendously helpful for me.

-Tim-
 
Like it or not, as I have been advised, distractions are a fact of life in prayer. They will always be there because our minds are frail and attached to many things. The Catechism teaches us that distractions are one of the enemies against which we must fight in the battle of prayer.

But because one often falls into involuntary distraction, which often cannot be helped, once one realizes that he has been distracted, he then is faced with a moment of decision: shall I entertain this pleasant thought or turn my thoughts back to God? This act of the will can be a moment of great merit and grace.
 
I’ve been reading stuff on prayer from the Easter Orthodox Saints lately.

Anyway, they say you will never stop the thoughts that take you away from prayer, but work on being aware when they come, and let go of them as soon as they do. Just gently return tor your prayer.

Jesus said, “Watch and Pray,” and the Desert Fathers of Egypt taught that we should watch our thoughts. Be aware when they come and take us away from prayer, and let them go.

If you give the thought attention, you’ll immediately be drawn into providing commentary on the thought and before you know it, you’ve been drawn away from prayer.

But when it happens, don’t become anxious, just return to your prayer.

Jim
 
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