Prayer and procrastination

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Hermione

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Hello everyone šŸ™‚

I unfortunately have observed in myself somewhat of a reluctance to pray (especially to pray the rosary, as it takes a while). Iā€™ll procrastinate until very late in the day to pray, and then I sort of force myself to do it.

I donā€™t like being this way. I want to look forward to pray and to do so with joy. After all, what a wonderful thing it is to believe in God and to pray to Him!

Have any of you had similar attitudes toward prayer? How have you overcome them?

Thanks! šŸ™‚
 
Sometimes itā€™s difficult for me to pray, too. I think itā€™s a pretty common problem.

First, you should feel good about the fact that you pray at all. Some people donā€™t even do that. And I wouldnā€™t worry too much about waiting until the end of the day. Itā€™s better than not at all. Plus, maybe itā€™s the only real time that you have to pray.

Second, I suggest getting up a few minutes early in the morning. If you want to pray first thing, take some extra time first thing. Just get out of bed 10 or 15 minutes earlier than normal. That way youā€™ve made prayer a priority in your life and youā€™ve got a good start to your day.

Third, Satan will do anything to keep us from a relationship with God. So, just be aware of his tricks and how he might be keeping you from prayer.

Scout :tiphat:
 
Scout made some excellent suggestions above. I would add one more. Make a priority to schedule prayer time. Find a time in the day when you normally have some time to yourself (in the morning as suggested, and maybe after dinner) and write it into your daily planner (or make a firm commitment to yourself). Then find a quiet place and pray. Donā€™t worry if itā€™s difficult or you donā€™t know what to say (you can always use a prayer book and find ones that relate what you are feeling or what you would like to say).

Personally, I like to think that God finds it more pleasing to hear our prayers when it is difficult for us to do so than when it is easy for us.
 
As another suggestion, have you thought about praying the Liturgy of the hours? Outside of religious communities, usually only the morning, evening and night offices are suggested for the laity. These offices correspond to approximately 6am, 6pm and 9pm, respectively. The offices are structured, and I find it an easy way to make time for prayer šŸ˜ƒ
 
There have been some excellent suggestions. My wife used to pray the Divine Office, which was great because thatā€™s what priests pray every day ā€“ and many of them find it hard to get it all in because of their busy day. Now Iā€™m not sure she still does that, but prays the ā€œlittle officeā€ or something like that.

For me, I like my prayer to be more spontaneous and while I have made certain temporary commitments (such as reading a gospel by at least one chapter per day during Lent ā€“ turned out to be so much fun I ended up reading four or five) I donā€™t schedule the time. For you, I suggest you might consider an occasional ā€œfailureā€ at fulfilling the letter of some non-trivial expectation you have placed on yourself as no big deal, considering we with active lives (as opposed to the cloistered life) cannot control our whole day ā€“ especially if there are children involved. Breaking the spirit of it, like putting it off because you just find it tedious, is yet another thing. Then you might want to examine your expectations.

Alan
 
Find a Mass with a rosary group. Structured time, the benefit of Mass and you recieve more grace because of the extra pray partners. It is how I learned the Rosary and now I treasure it, but I have to admit that for about a month or so I havenā€™t said an entire rosary ā€“ child, husband, friends, family-- someone somewhere needs me. I figure that I need to respond and that the reason they called on me was because of my prayer.
 
I have this problem sometimes, too, and I confessed it recently. For my penance my priest told me to schedule the same time every day for prayer! It is harder than it seems, too! I did well the first few days and now I find myself slacking off again, so I need to really make myself stick with the time I schedule. I think he definitely has something, though, in assigning this penance to me! He admits that there are certain prayers he would find it difficult to do everyday if he simply did not schedule the exact time to do them. That made me feel a lot better about my periodic lapses! :o
 
I am so glad you made this post. This is a terrible struggle for me as well.

On thing I used to do and I will start again today is this: I set a pepetual alarm on the cell phone to go off at noon and then I pray the angelus. It takes just a few minutes.

I have to go now. I have a date with Mary in the rosary.
 
If I pray the rosary, I normally pray it at night, as this is the only block of time that is consistently free almost every day. However, I often find myself making excuses not to do it, like, ā€œWell, you know I really need to get a good nightā€™s sleep tonight. Maybe I should just go to bed.ā€ However, many times I do try to force myself to do it, and I am always glad I did. I think part of it could be the enemy trying to get me not to pray. The reason I think this is that consistently, almost every time I pray the rosary, there is a great temptation not to do it.

I have not overcome these feelings yet, but I think one thing you can do is pray to Our Lord and ask Him to give you a right attitude toward prayer.
 
Iā€™ve got a recommendation for you. You probably already have a fabulous guide to prayer in your house: The Catechism! Open up to the oft-forgotten section 4 which is all about prayer, and more importantly, barriers to praying which you are talking about. šŸ‘

Scott
 
I can only say what helps me, for this is struggle for me too. On my way to work I play a tape of the The devine mercy chaplet (a beautiful version by Vinny Flynn) and pray along with it. I also utilize EWTNā€™s web site alot. If you go under their archived audio (in multimedia) and search under rosary they have a few versions to pick from. I guess I find it easier when someone else is leading.

ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/selectseries.asp
hereā€™s a link

Also I go to the Faith section
ewtn.com/Devotionals/prayer_saint.htm

I also pray with my 9 year old daughter when I put her bed (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Act of Contrition and spontaneous prayer). And we read from the Bible at that time.

I recently made my first holy hour while my daughter was at ccd class and that was great.

Alot of people have given great at advice. Keep trying until it becomes a habit.
 
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