Running and prayer

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Vman358

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When ever I run, I tend to automatically pray. This ususally isn’t a straight up Our Father or Hail Mary, but a conversing type of prayer. Ususally a reflection/re-evaluation of my life in the past [week] and praying for others. Anyone else have this happening to them or something similar? Maybe with other activities not usually connected to prayer?
 
Never with running, as I need music to motivate me to battle the mosquitoes and humidity here.( mp3 player)…but I have experienced prayerfulness with doing art: drawing and painting. I have even prayed rosaries while drawing for several hours, or just got got lost in being in His Presence.
 
I tend to do that sort of prayer while driving the distance between home and work.
 
A few years ago when I used to walk regularly around my neighborhood (it was safer then), one stretch had a particularly difficult hill. As I walked up the hill, I named a person I wanted to pray for with each step, offering the little suffering of the hill for them. Over and over - “Annie, Amy, Linda, Katie, John, Ruthann, Chris…Annie Amy Linda Katie John Ruthann Chris…”

Betsy
 
Vman358 I run and pray all the time, its one of the only times I am convinced He’s there.
 
Sometimes I pray while swimming laps (usually a slow, relaxing hymn in my head that fits the rhythm).

A Rosary while watering the garden — watering each plant about the length of a Hail Mary. (After all, a Rosary is supposed to be a bouquet of roses for Mary.)
 
I’m a biker, not a runner, and find I need to be very careful of my thoughts during a hard ride.

The physical exertion without much mental engagement makes it very easy for me to ‘stew in my own juices’, as they say.

That is, to let negative thoughts about the times I’ve been ill treated etc. take over. When I do that, I think it does my health far more harm than good.

I do sometimes pray, but I’m not much on repetitive rhythmic prayer, and for me a 140 heart rate isn’t conducive to contemplation.
 
nox said:
Vman358 I run and pray all the time, its one of the only times I am convinced He’s there.
Click to expand...
May God bless you nox. This past summer through now, I’ve seen God working though people and things in my life like never before. I pray you see this too. I was too blind to see it in the past, or if I did, I treated as an isolated incident without real direction. Oh how foolish I was.
 
I think that is wonderful. I pray while doing art and while showering. I guess that seems weird, but it just works for me.
 
Yes, absolutely. I also find myself thinking about the week’s readings, homily, etc. It’s nice. Although this often has the effect of making my run seem longer.
 
I say my “Runners Prayer” before I start out, and then say the rosary. Quite often I manage three Rosaries.
 
Hmm, is there anywhere out there I can get the stations of the cross on MP3 or the rosary??? I like this running and prayer idea and would love to put those on my ipod to help me push myself.
 
Here is my “Runners Prayer”

All powerful and all loving God. I praise you for your goodness and the gift of your creation.
Thank you for the abilities you have given to me and for Your
help in my training that has brought me this far.
Be with me today as I run, only because of Your love for me.
Send your angels to lift my legs, to make swift my feet and guard me from injury and harm.
Help me to do my best so that I will bring honor and glory to Your name.
Thank you God, forever and ever.
Amen
 
I run with my guardian angel. This is how I am building a relationship with my guardian angel - whom I have mostly ignored. As I run, I converse (and reflect on my life) or I ask for protection or intercession from my guardian angel. We often pray for the needs and intentions of those that we encounter during our run.
 
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