Worn down by prayer responsibilities (venting)

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Yes I tend to overcommit at everything! Thank you everyone for your advice! Very helpful to put my mind at ease :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
 
Each day, I pray “…for all those who have asked for my prayers, for all those to whom I have promised my prayers, for all those in need of my prayers…”

I developed this habit years ago when I was (like you) young and zealous and frustrated that I “had to pray” for so many people and intentions. It got to the point that I had a huge written list of people and intentions and my prayer turned into burning through that list rather than lifting those people and intentions up to God in prayer.

Give it a try - God knows the people and intentions that He has placed in your heart.
 
OraLabora said:
Another good trick for praying for the intentions of people you know is to create a Word document with a list of people and intentions for them. Keep the list up-to-date, print it, fold it, and put it in your breviary or whatever prayer book you might use. Then, say at the end of the intercessions for Lauds and Vespers, simply add a private intention “and I pray for all my family, friends, acquaintances and my own personal requests on this list”.
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This is what I do, but I use an Excel spreadsheet.
One could also use a notebook or just sheets of paper.
 
Please, our OP is struggling thinking prayer XYZ is required at specific times or every day. My point is that prayer can flow with your life.
 
Glennon_P said:
Each day, I pray “…for all those who have asked for my prayers, for all those to whom I have promised my prayers, for all those in need of my prayers…”
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I do the same - so much like your words that a first, I had to scroll back through and see if you were quoting something I had forgotten that I had written. 😂
 
😁 I’ll double-check my APA manual and be sure to properly cite you in all future prayers.
 
Jesus is the love of our life. He’s our BFF. He’s our Brother & Savior. Enjoy your life w Christ. Like taking a walk in a park. Besides talking to God, you can say a rosary for your intentions. Program out a schedule that is comforting. He wants the passion of our love behind our prayers. We start w overflowing loving praise. Bathe Him in praise. Proceed to petitions. Yes, feel your love in prayer for these troubled souls advance to the throne, as incense rises upwards. If you don’t feel well, a certain day, reduce your prayer time. Make a list of your petitions. He knows what they are. Just pray for those in the list, Lord. Hear my prayer & Thank You for Your answer.
Things like that.
Grateful for Gods answered prayer in your life.
Your Sister in Christ
Tweedlealice
 
Heisreturning said:
Yes I tend to overcommit at everything! Thank you everyone for your advice! Very helpful to put my mind at ease 😄
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In addition to what everyone said about compulsive tendencies, this is also a great way to burn yourself out and lose interest in Catholicism. I get that at the moment it’s this whole new interesting world, but the novelty will wear off eventually and if you don’t develop a solid, sustainable prayer life you’re going to lose interest and move on to the next thing to obsess over.

It would be better for you to pray for five minutes sincerely and without a script than for you to spend six hours reciting every prayer you can find on the internet. Not saying there’s anything wrong with saying specific prayers of course, but you’re missing the point if you’re just saying them mechanically because you think you have to check them off a list. Pick one, say it slowly and really think about what you’re saying.
 
Follow your conscience but try not to be overly scrupulous (“scrupulosity”). You do need to honor your parents but your attraction to the Catholic Church and to the God it serves is a wonderful thing.
 
Is this really enough? I wouldn’t take it to the extreme of the op, but I also struggle with what is “enough.” how do we know what God requires?
 
The Catholic Church set out the requirements for us.
Attending Mass in person is our number 1 Obligation. The Mass is a public prayer, a public, community praise and worship of God Its pinnacle being the Sacrifice of the Mass. At present with COVID 19 lockdowns and restrictions, different Diocese have suspended that obligation temporarily.

Prayer is a conversation with God, it can be in the form of praise, supplication, pleas for intercession through saints, pleas for mercy, and most importantly prayer of thanks to God.
Many of the forms of prayer are private devotions. That includes the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and Novenas. This means we are not obligated to pray them. People will gravitate towards one or more forms of prayer in private devotions and practice them, like the Rosary.
Some might just pray the Jesus prayer
'Lord Jesus have mercy on me , a sinner. ’
They might pray this once or repeat it throughout the day, or in prayer session.

Quality , not quantity is the key.
Foe example, How often have you heard a public Rosary where people are flying through each prayer. It is better to pray considered and meaningfully and as speaking with God, rather then as ‘calling a horse race’. Sure some people can be meaningful with swift vocal prayer, many cannot. The words in the prayer hold meaning. The silences in the prayer, the pauses, the stops, the intervals, these all hold meaning too.

Pray a decade of the Rosary, or one prayer with full attention to it, rather then attempting a huge list of daily prayers that leave you with a feeling of burden and being weighed down.

God created us as individuals. Our prayer life is an individual experience with God.

The most important Liturgy is that of the Mass, the second is the Liturgy of the Hours. Religious have certain requirements for the Liturgy of the hours, lay people do not, although they might be expected to include parts of it in their Rule of Life if associated with a Religious Order as a Third Order or Oblate.
Lay people build their relationship, their conversation and praise and thanks to God a bit differently, not being obligated to the Prayer that is the Liturgy of the Hours.

Lastly there is the famous story of the worker who stopped by the Tabernacle daily, and sat for hours, just listening silently to God.
 
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When we overload ourselves, thus burning ourselves out, this runs counter to what the Lord desires. A nurse gave me a “Holding Cross” made in the Philippines. It fits into your palm comfortably. The instructions with it have a written prayer, but state that simply holding it is a form of prayer and that much is clear.

There was a period where I had zero energy to even speak, let alone pray. That cross, along with silent prayer from the heart, would have been of great comfort. It is worth a try, as some of the absolute best prayers include no words at all.

They are heart to Heart.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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