Percentage

[Tamsulosin]

What would be the MORAL, ideal percentage of time a christian should spend working, playing and praying, if you have to break the 24 hrs of a day? How would Jesus want us to spend the hours He gives us?

As if using a pie chart,where do you fall?
I suspect I spend too much time at the computer. with CAF.I should right now be doing other chores…

 

[Ponyguy]

As if using a pie chart,where do you fall?

Mmmmm… pie…

http://www.bridalpartytees.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/pie.jpg

I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting in front of this idiot box on my desk, in my boar’s nest of a den. I should be cleaning it up and dusting it, and vacuuming it, and making it orderly. I fail.

For an ordinary working man, I consider 8 hours a day to be the ideal amount of “paid employment.” Then 8 hours in bed, and the other 8 hours spread around the family, commuting, eating meals with the family, playing with the children, praying, watching TV, reading the paper & surfing the computer, and the rest of our daily grind.

 

[Tamsulosin]

So your pie would look like this:
1/3 sleep(let’s say white color)
1/3 work (green)
Now what sliver of the remaining 1/3 do you devote to praying?(say blue)
What sliver dedicated completely to the children(yellow)
or to your spouse?(red)
You do not need to answer, but this exercise is good to analize what would be the ideal.
Maybe my interest is to find out what does the Catholic Church recommend as far as time per day dedicated to devotion:10 minutes per day ,half an hour, an hour?
I wanted to compare myself on that department against my peers, and see if I am
average or I am way off. What would Jesus expect from me? From us?How much of our daily time?
If we organize our time so as to be employed to the ideal extent, we would be wiser
than letting it go wherever,haphazardly.
Does your praying vary from day to day.Doyou do it all at one time or spread around the day?It adds up to how much time?
I hope this is not too personal a question.

 

[Ponyguy]

If that final sentence is aimed at me, I’ll have to qualify my answers. I’m old, long-since retired, and don’t have a fixed daily routine. My children are grown and gone, excepting our daughter, who is “challenged” and will likely live with us until we croak.

Of the 8 hours that are considered “discretionary,” I’d say I probably would spend about 30 minutes a day in prayer… occasionally multi-tasking while driving or such. Of my discretionary time, I would love to spend more time than I do, “at play” with our grandchildren… but I do spend what I am able. Some days my wife needs more attention, other days other targets pop up. No two days are really ever alike.

Some days I spend more or less than the 30 prayer minutes I mentioned; but I always make it a point to at the least, say a rosary every day…

I hope I’ve offered something of substance…

 

[teachccd]

The MORAL percentage that a Catholic should pray is 100% of the time. Mother Teresa said that every act of love is a prayer. Saint Paul exhorts us to pray unceasingly. How we break up our activities in life depends on our different situations (ie. married, single, student, employed, unemployed, etc.) but all of our waking hours should be devoted to shining the light of Christ. How well do I do? Well, let’s just say that I am human. Now if you count actual dialogue with God in time set aside then I would say that I pray the Lauds and then talk to God periodically throughout the day and then I try to pray the Vespers if I don’t fall asleep. On Sunday I take a greater percentage to focus on God in the Mass and dialogue with God… teachccd

 

[Edward_H]

teachccd

Tamsulosin,

“Pray always” “Rejoice always”

All lecit actions can be turned into prayer, a conversation with God. Our goal should be to convert all activities as much as possible into prayer, with God’s grace. Prayer is one way to get closer to God; unity/communion with God is the goal.

Changing diapers, changing tires, preparing for a meeting, taking notes, waiting for an elevator. All can be offered to God, all can be done with God, and should be done for the love of God.

It’s hard…and your attention on some tasks naturally will have to remain on the raw content of the work…but you can intermittently take breaks with God.

Punctuating your day throughout with other more formal/deliberate/verbal prayers can also help. Morning offering, Prayers at meals, Angelus at noon, Rosary on the way home from the office, mental prayer, and an exam at night are some of the ways of maintaining a presence of God. Think of these as approaches to God. Spread them out naturally across your day.

Just some thoughts.

 

[LilyM]

Got to agree with the others - neither work nor play is at all mutually exclusive of prayer, so potentially we can make ALL our awake hours a continuous act of prayer.

In terms of time exclusively dedicated to formal prayer - well, depends on your state in life. Obviously a contemplative nun, whose prayer is in a very real sense her ‘work’, has much greater obligations in this regard than the average layperson.

And someone who is retired and has no children to look after has much more time to devote to formal prayer, and so correspondingly can and probably should devote a greater part of their day to it.

 

[teachccd]

Got to agree with the others - neither work nor play is at all mutually exclusive of prayer, so potentially we can make ALL our awake hours a continuous act of prayer.

In terms of time exclusively dedicated to formal prayer - well, depends on your state in life. Obviously a contemplative nun, whose prayer is in a very real sense her ‘work’, has much greater obligations in this regard than the average layperson.

And someone who is retired and has no children to look after has much more time to devote to formal prayer, and so correspondingly can and probably should devote a greater part of their day to it.

 

[Tamsulosin]

Thank you for your suggestions.(The pies look delicious Ponyguy
It has become evident that I fall short in comparison, since I did not approach prayer as some of you do,intertwined with office work and other chores.Is it quality time ,though when you have a divided mind,praying while you work? Is it respectful enough?
Some people cannot concentrate in two things simultaneously so it may result in a lackluster prayer…(while changing tires?)
And then I feel we also need another pie to account for percentage of prayers for oneself and percentage of prayers to intercede for others.If we only pray for ourselves maybe selfish.I image we must devote a part of our awake hours doing acts of kindness or charity besides prayers.We need deeds, for faith is not enough. We need a longer day!!!
in our quest to be as saintly as we all want to be.I will never be worthy,it is so difficult to achieve.
Tam

 

[stringbeanduck]

What would be the MORAL, ideal percentage of time a christian should spend working, playing and praying, if you have to break the 24 hrs of a day? How would Jesus want us to spend the hours He gives us?

As if using a pie chart,where do you fall?
I suspect I spend too much time at the computer. with CAF.I should right now be doing other chores…

There are many answers to this question and each vary from person to person. In other words there is not a set answer. In general, there are times in our life where Christ wants us to sacrifice or offer up our personal free time to do His will. Prayer, faith education, and all other things that relate back to God also need to fit into our schedule.

 

[Edward_H]

Fall short? nonsense. I didn’t learn about this approach to prayer and begin to work/pray like this until just a few years ago. But this approach goes way back to Scripture. Pray always. Always giving thanks.

Quality time? You’re super-naturalizing your work time with God’s grace!

No divided time…it’s done with God. He’s with you as you work.

Respectful enough…yes…just as if your father was with you.

Sure…you can’t have a constantly flickering mind. So you might start a period of work with a very short intention…and slowly your mind goes into the work. But your intention is set. It’s a virtual intention…it doesn’t need to be centermost all the time.

Work as though you were Joseph working with Jesus. Imagine how well Jesus must have worked, how he helped his own foster father Joseph.

A lackluster prayer it is not…and even if it were a lackluster prayer…it is better than no prayer!

Pray for others. Some of us pray for ourselves too much. Work for the love of God and for the intentions of others.

Acts of kindness/charity are prayers too!

Struggle with a smile. It’s a good struggle. No discouragement.

Great topic, Tam!