How to pray hard?

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Tonight at my parish’s mission, the Priest told a story in which a person prayed very hard, and the prayer was successful.

It lead me to wonder, what does it mean to “pray hard”?

It’s a general, even metaphoric, sort of term. The closest explanation I can fathom is possibly something akin to fervor or zeal, but still - what is it that stokes the spiritual flame, or quickens the spirit?

It doesn’t seem to be the same for everyone, though. Some people can say the rosary daily, but I have trouble saying it for more than a few days in a row. But give me a spiritual book, or maybe serving at mass, or sacred music, or contemplating meanings, then I can keep going and going.

I guess the Priests statement just made me wonder what it means to “pray hard”, so maybe as to heighten the good and edify the weak.

Totus Tuus!
🙂

Wm
 
That kind of made me chuckle… like nine small meals, instead of three big ones… Grazing lightly… 😉
 
Shaking the very gates of Heaven if necessary and involved to the very core. As one is.
That is what it means to me.
 
Peace! Sincerely praising and thanking GOD by reading (in an audible voice) seven short chapters of Psalms—is what I do daily, and it is a form of prayer too. I don’t allow myself to be disturbed while doing this, it’s a sacred act for me.

Sirach 47:8-11

" In everything David did, he gave THANKS and PRAISE to the Holy Lord, the Most High. He loved his Creator and sang praises to Him with ALL his HEART. He put singers at the altar to provide beautiful music. He set the times of the festivals throughout the year and made them splendid occasions; the Temple rang with the LORD’s praises all day long. The LORD forgave David’s sin and established his power forever. He made a covenant with him that he and his descendants would reign in splendor over Israel."

Note: It’s clear to me that King David is very much loved by GOD. In the Bible, I could not count the times I had read the phrase—“for the sake of my servant David…”
 
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As one priest said during a parish mission, “Do not pray with a constipated face” Rather, persistence and a pure heart can yield definite results - but they must accord with God’s will, and we are so often opposed to Him. I particularly offer prayer before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament - miracles occur there.

One of my most efficacious prayers (or was it pure consolation?) involved no words at all. A fellow parishioner had an intractable infection in her jaw. It was beginning to look rather serious, as all jaw infections can be. Her name was written in the book of prayer intentions, which was placed at the foot of the altar during adoration.

I believe it was for the full hour, but I traced my fingers back and forth across her name and wept. Toward the end of the hour, I received the most incredible consolation from the Holy Spirit. Indescribable peace and warmth. I saw her a few days later and she said that the fever and infection had broken a few days before - we figured that same evening. I cannot credit my prayer, but must praise the Holy Spirit for such amazing consolation, as I had no other way of knowing that she was out of danger.
 
I’ve often found that the prayers that were answered quickest were those said with tears running down my face.

Pray with faith and trust-that’s praying hard. Trust that the Lord will hear your prayer, even if you’ve botched the Our Father by saying, “Give us today our trespasses, and forgive us our daily bread,” like I did once.
 
Salibi said:
I’ve often found that the prayers that were answered quickest were those said with tears running down my face.
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I can understand that… but then there are not-sad times, too… yes?

So - if you are in a not-sad time… and are not necessarily exuberant about anything… but just kind of indifferent (without being terribly lukewarm)… in other words - if you are totally in the middle of the road, on-the-fence, and could go one way or the other…

How then do you pray hard?

To cry would seem rather silly, and to laugh might be careless… to be angry would be sort of unjustified… to be curious possibly deviant… so…? Hmmm…

So… ? What to do to pray hard?

🤔
 
It doesn’t have to mean “grazing lightly”…it helps us keep our focus on the Lord by acknowledging His presence even when we don’t “feel” His presence.
 
Take time to pray meditation on His Passion…for about fifteen minutes. (such as the Stations of the Cross.) Don’t let distractions discourage you, just go back to focusing on His Passion.
 
Just pray. Even when it’s insincere. The Lord still listens, I hope.
 
I’d say it just means to pray sincerely, like when you lose yourself in prayer… for me that would almost exclusively mean mental prayer and like Salibi said often in tears (nothing at all to do with sadness) …when my prayer is from the heart and I am swept away in God, then I’d say I am praying hard. Often afterwards if you ask me what I said I’d be hard pushed to remember other than perhaps vague notions. But I do think it might mean different things to different people as prayer is such a personal thing.

As for learning to say the rosary daily…begin small…say a decade daily or even just the Our Father and then slowly add a few Hail Mary’s and build it up day by day week by week. You can also divide it up so you say a decade in the morning, one mid morning, noon, afternoon, evening and the last before bed or something like that. Basically, if there’s a will there’s a way. But not everyone likes the rosary, there are other prayers. Personally I think the rosary is worth sticking with as it advances you in prayer more than you can imagine, it’s merits are in my opinion well worth any effort.
Learning to pray is like any other relationship, the more effort you put into getting to know God, the more you get out of it.
 
Luke gave good insight in the efficacy of prayer in Chapter 18.

1Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.
 
First, I think that whoever gave that advice was asking for misunderstandings. One should not make up a “should” for people, and leave it poorly explained, ambiguous, or worse: left to anyone’s own subjective opinion as to what it ought to mean.

God’s will for us all is hard to hear - difficult to accept - often “toned down” to make it easier. I refer to this:
Mt 5:48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The context of this staggering “must be” from the mouth of God ought to shake us all to the realization, "I am not perfect! What am I to DO? How can I ever become what God wants and intends of me, so imperfect am I?

The answer is, seek to learn from God how to ascend this awesome mountain to Him, and into His holy and true will for me.

Earnest, heart-felt, obedient, serious, committed, faithful prayer is part of the journey of ascent.

It is good that you’ve excluded “indifference”! That would be spiritual death.
 
Get down to the ground as far as you can and absolutely beg for God’s mercy.

We are powerless next to God and it’s only by his Mercy and Mother Church’s wisdom that our hearts continue to beat.
 
Fast!

Some demons are only cast out by fasting and prayer, according to Our Lord Himself, who prepared for His public ministry by fasting for forty days.

This is how you put your money where your mouth is in prayer, giving up things that are legitimate and good, suffering pain, and want, and lack, letting your whole body and mind groan and scream to God with your lips and your aching soul. Then, devote yourself radically to prayer for specific intentions, and for all the intentions of the Sacred Heart, and for any intentions for which you should be praying, but are unaware of.

Pray with others. Fast with others. Set impractical goals for prayer. You can pray 11 Rosaries, if not a dozen more, within 24 hours. If you had a brain tumor you would spend that kind of time in clinic, lab, and surgery, so why not devote that kind of intensity and time for a spiritual malady with eternal consequences that has convicted you of the need to “Pray hard?”

Then, persist until the end! And, regardless of your satisfaction with the outcome: Thank God for hearing you, and for the gift and grace of prayer, because every prayer you made, was by His power, and ultimately at His prompting.

Also, don’t forget the power of posture. Pray in the Cross. Pray on your knees. Pray prostrate on the ground like the priest on Good Friday. Get your body involved. Use every faculty, every power, mortify it, focus it, redirect it into this one, single-hearted motion of your whole person towards God. And invoke the Spirit, who supplies for our weakness and helps us to pray as we ought.

I know this sounds extreme: it is. This isn’t the stuff of daily devotion or routine. Regular prayer of a more modest sort is ultimately of greater importance. But to pray with intensity and reckless abandon is necessary at times, too.
 
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This is how I pray hard I think about every word that I am saying and what I am praying for and important it is to me as I’m saying the words (usually rosary or Devine mercy) I can feel them so much in my heart and If pray hard enough sometimes I cry because I feel so bad like I feel like a sinner it makes me feel so sorry that Jesus a man who never once committed a sin had to die for the likes of me and here I am asking for a favour
 
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