Great advice. For me, I was finding myself so very busy at times, with work, caregiving for a parent, helping with grandchildren, and traveling (work), that I was too overwhelmed to even squeeze out 10 minutes of quiet time. And I was often feeling quite anxious.
Here is what I began doing, ever so little in the beginning. I learned a couple of very easy short prayers, and I got in the habit of praying them as often as I could remember. One is the Jesus or sinner’s prayer, which I started out by at least saying as soon as I woke up in the morning, gradually remembering to recite it more and more often throughout the day. And the other is a Holy Spirit prayer that simply goes, “Come, Holy Spirit. Come now. Come as You wish.” To those two, I began adding a morning offering and an Our Father and a Hail Mary. There are still occasional days when that is about all I manage to pray. But even now, on an especially busy day, when well into the day I haven’t remembered to pray, just saying the Jesus prayer or a Holy Spirit prayer usually draws me into more prayer.
Since I am often commuting by car or other means, far, far from home and far from my books, Bible, EWTN, and Catholic radio, it has helped me tremendously to begin memorizing prayers. When I have access to nothing else, no rosary, no TV, no radio, no iPod or computer, no books, it is so helpful to be able to recite some of my favorite prayers that I have finally been able to commit to memory.
Probably I haven’t eased the Go Go Go mentality that well yet, but I have such an increased sense of calm and far less anxiety now, armed with my super short and other memorized prayers.
