Is it acceptable to pray while walking in public?

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I pray all the time when I walk. I listen to the rosary on cd when I walk to work. Puts things in proper perspective for me.
Kathy
 
homeric said:
Sarabande,

You responded to my concerns with great precision. Thank you so much.

The Handel prayer is a nice, brief prayer. I will pray it sometime soon.

I am also eager to pray the Act of Love silently in public:

O Lord God, I love you above all things and I love my neighbor for your sake because you are the highest, infinite and perfect good, worthy of all my love. In this love I intend to live and die. Amen.
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You’re welcome. 🙂 I don’t think Handel wrote the text. He only composed the music for it. (So, I literally do sing when I pray, even in my head. 🙂 ha! ha!) I believe that the text is actually based on a biblical verse, but I’m not quite certain on that.

I haven’t prayed the Act of Love in so long - since grade school. I’ve forgotten how beautiful it is. Thank you for reminding me of that.
 
I’m always talking to God. I don’t know if it counts as prayer or not, but little things like thanking Him when I see something beautiful in nature or asking for patience when I feel myself getting aggitated with a person, traffic light, barking dog, etc.

I remember when I worked at a plastics company managing the warehouse. Two of the male employees didn’t change the rain barrels on the roof, and Monday morning I was greeted with a warehouse underwater. It was something totally, completely and easily preventable. The manager had even told them to do it Friday afternoon because there was rain in the forecast, but they blew it off. That day, spent with wet feet in 40 degree weather and moving boxes around while making lists of what inventory couldn’t be saved, I talked to Jesus non-stop. Only this time it was outloud. “Help me Jesus not to kill them…”

Oddly enough, for that whole week the two gulity parties avoided me at every break. 👍
 
puzzleannie said:
you can pray quietly, you can pray out loud, you can carry a big rosary, you can dress in sackcloth and ashes.
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Yes, I agree with all posters it is indeed a good thing to pray, even in public quietly to yourself. But do not pray to bring attention to yourself.

Matthew 6:5-6: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men…when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…”
 
estesbob said:
I pray the rosary on my daily hike. I use a decade ring but still get some strange looks form people I pass-they think I am talking to myslef!
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i feel self conscious abit if i am praying when i’m out walking or someplace…because i wonder whether my lips are moving…whether people think i’m talking to myself…and then i find i can’t focus that good on the actual prayers…does anyone know how to pray without moving their lips…i and probably a few people on the forum would be grateful if they told us how to do it

ANGELIC PEACE
 
Joel 6:6 tells us what God expects. He expects us to “walk humbly with your God.” There is a rhythm to walking that enhances (personal opinion) the rhythm of prayer.
I often rite the rosary while walking. I pace a lot so while I am waiting for the bus, I pray the Divine Mercy while I pace.
There are times while walking that paryer simply flows out of me and I sing in the Spirit (in tongues).
Am I ever interrupted? Yes, I stop, give directions or answer questions directed my way. I’ve even been “hit on” while prayer.
I deal with the distraction and continue on my way. The fact that I may be praying is not obvious to those around me.
A tip I was given when feeling depressed. Name your feet “Glory” and the right foot “Praise.” Each time left foot hits the ground say “Glory;” and say “Praise” each time your right foot hits the ground.
 
Yes,of course!!You can pray anytime,anyway,anywhere at all!!God is always ready.I used to pray constantly-but it gets kind of frustrating if you do that,so I advise you to concentrate on what your doing when your doing something,and then pray when you dont need to concentrate on anything.God loves us to pray ANYTIME, so A.S.A.P.
 
I pray on the bus, though not out loud. I see it as like keeping an open radio channel to talk to God whenever I can. Of course there are distractions but God sees them as well and understands when your train of thought gets interrupted
 
homeric said:
I appreciate all your invigorating replies.

My concern was that with various audio-visual distractions while walking, my prayer would not be “pure.” .
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if by some lucky chance at times your prayer is “pure” it is because of the action of the Holy Spirit, not on account of anything you did or did not do, other than simply devoting the given time to conversation with God.
 
When I was a Catholic school student the nuns would stop every time it started to snow so we could all “walk” to the window and watch the snowflakes pray. We had a moment of silence looking up to heaven asking God to listen to our prayers on each snowflake. Usually, our prayers were for the poor pagan babies and the souls in purgatory. Those moments stayed with me forever. Later in life I wasn’t embarrassed to stop on the street in front of perfect strangers and gaze at the miracle of the snowflakes while I put prayer intentions on the flakes.
 
onetruechurch said:
Later in life I wasn’t embarrassed to stop on the street in front of perfect strangers and gaze at the miracle of the snowflakes while I put prayer intentions on the flakes.
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That is beautiful!

The OP reminds me of the priests nd nuns who woul dwalk in a “meditation garden,” silently or quietly reading the Office. I wish we had Catholic Gardens like that around here.

“Is it acceptable to pray while walking in public?”
Spiritually? Yes.
Culturally? Hmmm…if you’re going to be praying out loud, you will get the strange looks.

A possible solution would be:
a) an who cares? attitude, or
b) perhaps carrying a prayerbook to glance at while you’re walking? Or listening to a CD/Casette/Podcast of the Rosary?
c) find someone to walk with you?
 
estesbob said:
I cant say the Rosary without moving my lips!
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Every time I walk in the park there are people walking by themselves talking on their cellphones. If you feel strange walking and praying out loud when you are alone, how about putting a cellphone up to your ear as you pray?
 
It’s great to see so many replies here, but I wish I could edit the thread title to make it less controversially worded.

If a moderator reads this, could you please change my thread title to:

Is it acceptable to silently pray while walking in public?
 
Dear me, I do some of my best praying while I walk. At work, I park in a garage and walk about a quarter mile to my building. Last week, I saw a wreck on the highway just in front of the garage. I prayed for the two girls who were in the wreck. I pray while I walk to work and pray when I walk back to my car. I pray when I pass someone who is spewing four letter words or being vulgar ( I work on a college campus).
 
Today, when I meant to go to the chapel and pray, I was otherwise prevented because of a wedding.

So, I had the pleasure of praying outside, sitting under a tree. It’s so lovely out, it was quite beautiful. I had the book of Scriptures opened on my lap, and the book of nature opened before my eyes-- a lovely twin path to ascend to God.

-Rob
 
Considering some days I’m quite busy that I really don’t have the time to pray for an extended period of time in complete silence (which is definitely what I would prefer), I’ve started praying at other times of the day. I’ve said rosaries during class, going to lunch, going to work, during runs, etc. When you think about it, your whole life is really a prayer to God. I’ve only recently been able to realize that.
 
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