Help
With Your Rule
"How to Pray" for a Cradle Catholic
Dear Holly,
As I started my prayer times when I began my rule, all of a sudden I felt like I wasn't sure how to pray. I am a cradle Catholic and sometimes doubt what I know.
For example this is what I do in my morning prayer time: I have a Catholic Women's Devotional Bible where I read the days devotional. It gives me a scripture reading and a verse from the reading that is the verse of the day. Then I can also read the church daily readings for the day. I also have a book called "Catholic Mom 24/7 Daily Meditations for Busy Moms" by Tammy Bundy. Here she gives you a short bible verse and a short daily prayerful reflection relating to motherhood.
As I read these I go to my desk with computer off and my 2 yr old watching TV/eating breakfast. My 2 yr old has distracted me at times and on the first day it was awful. I honestly felt like God was saying don't do this now -- tend to her. Here I was trying to pray and yet I was also fighting off a 2 yr old to leave me alone??? I was very confused.
But back to the prayer. What do I do after I read? Is reading the scripture prayer? I felt lost like I wasn't done but wasn't sure what to do next. When you say a rosary , the rosary is the prayer. But when I do the reading and devotionals I feel like I left something out. But I like doing them. When I least expect it they hit home and relate to my life. What exactly is prayer for a busy mom? On page 47 of your book you talk of what a "basic Christian prayer life would entail" for you. I understand all that you wrote after but I guess my questions is what is formal prayer? I guess up until now all my prayers have been your basic Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, thanking God, asking for help etc. But now I am actually sitting down to pray and am not sure "if I'm doing it right"?
Labels: 1st P Prayer
posted by Holly at 6:28 PM
1 Comments:
Lots of little comments here for the lots of little questions! :-)
FIrst off - re praying when your two year old is up:
I think in MROL I mentioned looking for natural lulls in your day - when the children nap or are in bed, for example - for prayer. TV or playtime is usually not a good distraction for you to do any extended prayer time. I'd schedule my longer prayer times when the child is in bed - napping or before or after bedtime.
You can put some juice and crackers inside the door in case she wakes up in the morning - but I know the first two years I tried to be consistent with morning prayer, I inevitably had interruptions - and yes, it can drive one crazy - and so I did my serious prayer at night.
Secondly - the goal of prayer is conversation and relationship with Jesus. When you go to prayer - you want an encounter with Him. So , as you sit or kneel, just call upon the Holy Spirit - "Come Holy Spirit" will do (or go on the Net and look for other invocations to Him). Then say to Jesus - "Speak Lord - Your Servant is listening."
Then you can begin to read your Scripture, realizing these are Christ's 'love letters' to you. He IS speaking - directly to your heart with grace - whether you have a conscious intellectual grasp or not.
So read your scriptures. Stop when something strikes you. Ponder it. What does it mean to you? Does it have any implications for your life? Discuss it with Jesus, or praise him and thank him. Continue when the 'being struck' passes. Just 'pretend' you are on the other end of a telephone with Jesus. Let your heart expect to hear Him.
And if you don't 'seem' to - just say "Hey Jesus! I was here! I know you were here! And I gotta go do my work now! But bless me and mine..." and then head off.
As for formal prayers - I call memorized vocal prayers 'formal' - I usually do a Morning Offering, a Consecration to the Immacualte Heart of Mary; the Behold the Handmaid prayer on Holly's Notebook page of my website. A St Michael the Archangel prayer for protection; I find saying these words aloud, slowly, help get my head and heart 'into' the frame of mind I want to live my day in... Sometimes just these 4 or 5 prayers takes me 20 minutes, as I try to think about the meaning and 'mean' them...
Does this help??? Write back if it doesn't.
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