Is it ok to pray in bed? (As in lying down)

  • Thread starter Thread starter 20101310
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Sometimes I get to say extra rosaries while I’m doing chores,I’ve got to figure out how to count the prayers though…some of those decades manage to become elongated 🙂
 
A duty you must attend to is an impediment to kneeling and it includes what I said - “nothing stops you you”.
If your knees hurt too much that you cannot concentrate on the prayer then it is a health problem.
This is what I was told by priests several times and I heard them saying whenever asked.
Yes it hurts… 😓 knees and ankles.But I offer it to God because He suffered more. Maybe I have a high level of tolerance in pain. Eventually the bruises go off and I wouldn’t say it permanently hurt me.
I am more of a fatalist myself, I believe God hears all prayers no matter what and answer what He decides, but if the Church offered an indulgence then isn’t this a sign that there is a rule that we must kneel when pray?
But the question was about someone lying in bed so most likely they are not working ☺️
 
Canon Law strictly forbids prayer while laying in bed (just kidding!)

Yes it is OK.
 
I think reading the Gospels and understanding Jesus’s teachings, it is quite clear what God requires of us. It is the heart that counts.
So although the answer to your question is “Yes, of course”; that is not the important question to ask.
The important question is whether your heart is in it.

The analogy situation is if your child at school who you’re trying to get him/her to study and he/she asks you: “is it ok to wear a pink T shirt to study?”
 
During 31 years in law enforcement, I know of many who prayed upside down in ditches.

Let’s not get scrupulous here. Better that God hears from you lying down than not at all.
 
Mary888 said:
if the Church offered an indulgence then isn’t this a sign that there is a rule that we must kneel when pray?
Click to expand...
No, I presume that if the indulgence required that I kneel, the Enchiridion would require it. It is very clear on the other types of requirements (for example, that certain prayers must be “recited” out loud rather than mentally said).

I do kneel for some prayers and am working on building up my kneeling muscles so I can kneel better and straighter, but my entire family, which included a lot of Catholics going back to the early part of the 1900s, all prayed very frequently and none of them knelt very often except when required for Mass or Adoration or briefly in front of a shrine. Prayers were generally said sitting down. At night you might kneel by the side of your bed for a few minutes to say a night prayer.

I understand that there are some other cultures that emphasize kneeling a lot more and where someone might for example even have a prie-deux in their home to kneel for prayer at a certain time of day, so perhaps this is a cultural difference. I remember my mother with a Rosary almost constantly in her hand, but almost always sitting in a chair or sitting in the car.
 
Last edited:
I pray for a good length of time each day, always sitting in the same chair. It’s my Prayer Chair, that’s all it’s used for. We’re bordering on legalism to suggest we have to pray in a certain posture. Prayer is a conversation. Often times the hardest part is just showing up.

I knew someone who was in the habit of falling sleep wearing a rosary ring. Pray without ceasing, indeed!
 
Spyridon said:
Are you like 8 years old or are you trolling?

I honestly cannot fathom an adult answering this.
Click to expand...
Rude much?

I know that when my father was young his parents told him how lucky he was that he could say his bedtime prayers in his bed. He asked why. They told him that when they were young they grew up where one could only say prayers when kneeling with the exception of Grace at dinner, where one was permitted to sit. To this day, both my grandparents (knew eachother as children) still kneel by their bed out of habit. If you asked my grandparents why it was changed—they’d say Vatican II :roll_eyes:

If that was enforced, I’m sure that my father and myself would have been taught (although I know my mother, being native America, has never been taught she had to pray a certain way)
 
Its good to get a routine going with devotions (Novenas, Akathists, Rosary, Jesus Prayer, contemplative or meditative prayer) then go more in depth with the Divine Office.

There are so many great ways to pray the Offices - the Extraordinary Form, the Ordinary Form, the Little Office of BVM, and various Eastern forms as well.

Catholicism is like a bottomless well where you can draw infinite spiritual practices and wisdom. Protestantism is like a deep well, but has a definite bottom, there’s a point in Protestantism where it becomes very hard to advance spiritually because you are missing all the graces flowing from the Sacraments, as well as the Sacred Traditions of the Church, and therefore your theosis is being impeded.
 
Last edited:
Protestantism is really lacking where spiritual progress is concerned. It was one reason I really started questioning it. “Read the bible more” and “pray more” only get you so far. We have a great gift in our Saints and mystics and the wisdom they’ve passed on.
 
I have spent this year mostly doing Rosary, Divine Mercy and 54 days of Holy Face chaplet, plus trying to read a half hour of Scripture once or twice a week. Next year I want to do Marian consecration, and saying the Little Office fits well with that, plus it seems to get little attention these days since everybody just goes ahead and says the “Big Office”, so I hope to try the Little Office for a year and then decide from there if I want to try a different form the next year.
 
Yes. A lot of people are especially focused at this time, reflective. It is a very good time.
 
Yes however I would not recommend the lying down position because you almost always go to sleep. I have done it multiple times even when I thought I was pretty awake lol.
 
Yes, by all means. I usually pray my Rosary in bed before I go to sleep.
 
I remember all kneeling around my mums bed when we were little saying the rosary ,she was that exhausted.
The occassional silence from her was accepted,as well as the occassional sounds that accompany sleep:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top