The Battle for Prayer and Devotions

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Kima

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Hi.

Recently, my prayerlife has been pretty dry. I feel that God is close to me and that He keeps on calling me to prayer, which I´m very happy for. However, I experience daily this battle for prayer. Every time I feel that He is calling me to pray, I can come up with 10 reasons for not praying. A lot of times, these reasons cause me to sin. I absolutely fail to prioritize God in my daily life, even though I very much desire to do so. I don´t know how many times I´ve mentioned this in confession, but I still seem to struggle so hard. Does anyone of you have some advice on how to make good and lasting prayer habits? And how do I make my desire for God a realization, basically, how do I make myself spend more time in prayer? Also, are there any devotions you would recommend for me to do? Novenas are pretty much meaningless to me as I tend to fall off after a couple off days each and every time.

At the same time, when my spiritual life develops in a positive direction, even if it´s only for a short amount of time, I oftentimes tend to become prideful. Do any of you have any tips on how to avoid this issue? And how do I shake off my prideful thoughts when they come into my head?

God bless!
 
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Make your prayer habits short and tie them to something you do every day. For example, I have a set of prayers I always say when I get in the car. I can say them in about 15 minutes max which means if I drive to and from church or to and from the convenience store, I can get them all said.

Is praying in the car the greatest spiritual experience in the world? Probably not. But do I get the prayers done every day? Most of the time, yes. So the habit is formed.

Pick a time during the day when you can pray, maybe because you are in some spot where you can’t engage in distractions (like when I’m driving I can’t be looking at my phone or watching a video) and pray for a few minutes every day at that time. Also, if you go to daily Mass, you won’t be able to distract yourself during it - you’re not going to be looking at your iPad or reading a book or going outside to play sports in the middle of it - so that’s a good way to spend a half hour in prayer.
 
Thank you! I´ll try to make a routine for praying at the bus. That´s a time in my day with fewer distractions.

Thank you for sharing that, @Blimp. That´s interesting 🙂
 
Another little miracle. This one was posted today!!
It was helpful. @Blimp

 
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Do short prayers throughout the day. Don’t set a time where you have to pray for a certain amount of time. Nothing’s more discouraging then realizing “oh no, now I have to pray for 20 minutes”. Short, sincere prayers throughout the day have helped me the most. For example, let me describe a typical scenario and how prayer is mixed in. When I go out for a walk in a forest, I pray that everything goes smoothly. As I’m walking, I see a squirrel, so I pray that God grants the squirel a healthy life. As I see people jogging, I pray that God makes their jog successful and that they find Christ as their savior.

I may be in a bookstore and the cashier may have been really nice to me, so I pray that God blesses him/her. As I exit the store, I thank God for giving me enough money to buy stuff. As I get in the car, I ask the Lord to keep me safe on my trip home. Prayer is like the exhale of a christian; it’s done so much that you lose count of the amount of prayers you make during the day. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says “pray without ceasing”.

Make sure that you are in contact with the Lord in all situations. 😀
 
I like praying along with many of the Catholic prayers on you tube. I can easily spend an hour or two praying the Rosary, the Divine Mercy and the litanies, etc.

They have prayerd in Latin too.
 
Thank you all for so much good advice! I´ll definitely try them out!
 
I struggle with praying as well. Keep your prayer time short, for me I only pray for 5 or ten minutes. Even just reading your Bible for a few minutes is a good place to start. I journal every night before I go to bed. If you can, go to adoration. Sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament for a few minutes really works wonders. Finally, just remember, the devil does not want you to have a relationship with God, he does not want you to pray and he is going to tempt you, try to resist those temptations.
 
I printed a copy of “Getting Up in the Morning:Our First Spiritual Battle” from the Catholic Exchange. This led to a slight modification of my morning prayer routine since I already pray the Liturgy of the Hours.
What is important here is simply meeting the challenge of getting out of bed when the alarm rings. There are numerous “successful morning routine” videos about this issue, but the connection here is to prayer.
St. Josemaria, quoted in the article referred to the wake up call as “the heroic moment,” a mortification strengthening the will. Without giving in, you have conquered the day.
How is this done? One of the most inspirational graduation speeches was the Navy Seal who said “Make your bed.” The simple task completed at the beginning of the day means the first task of the day is completed.
The first thought and action of the day should be directed toward the One who is constantly seeking our love and devotion. Our initial response of the day is the Morning Offering.
I had a first grade nun who told our class to put shoes as far under the bed as possible. That way we would already be on our knees when we reached down to get them.
The Morning Offering gives meaning and purpose to the whole day. In the same way, a bed that is made sets the tone for the whole room.
After the Morning Offering, I pray the daily Consecration to Mary, instead of leaving it for after my rosary.
I still like the Guardian Angel Prayer. When my grandson was little, I would pray it with him while waiting for the bus.
I have other prayers that I pray in the morning, but the Morning Offering followed by the Consecration to Mary are a great start to the day, along with asking your Guardian Angel’s protection.
Start slowly, as you would with a physical exercise regime in order to develop a routine that works for you.
Some devotions, like the Angelus have traditional times. You may find comfort in the Liturgy of the Hours. In the beginning, start slowly and add rather than jumping into too many devotions at one time.
 
Unfortunately, St Josemaria lost me years ago with that “jump out of bed” stuff. If I wanted to live like I was in the military, I’d have joined up. I do make time for prayer but early morning usually isn’t it. I’m about to say the “Morning Offering” now…it’s 6 pm. But I figure each one is good for the whole day.
 
Same. I preferably don’t wake up until I absolutely have to😅 But thank y’all for a lot of good advice!
 
I tend to use the notion of “it 's 6:00” somewhere when it comes to the Angelus and the LOTH. The idea of the LOTH is to sanctify the hours of the day. The Church, by santifying the hours of the day “prays unceasingly.” One of the hours could be an hour in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I never prayed Vespers after midnight. I did set my own personal limits.
Each of us follows a different schedule. I’ve worked swing and graveyard shifts, so scheduling time for prayer and exercise definitely needs to be adjusted according an already preset schedule.
Currently I have a brace on my ankle so I’m not working out. Normally I would adjust workout times to YMCA classes. I might adjust my prayer time according to doctor’s appointments, or other activities on my schedule.
Do I read scripture immediately after morning prayer, or do I save scripture reading until later?
When I was teaching, the scripture reading was when I finished the school day, after praying the rosary. The same was true when I was activated for military service. I read my Bible after my duty day was completed. Since I was attached to headquarters, I had the luxury of attending daily Mass.
What time a person sets for prayer is less important than carving out the time. As others have already stated, keep it short, at least in the beginning. It takes 15 minutes a day to read 3 chapters of the Bible. In the course of one year, a person can read the entire Bible.
 
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