Often we want to have a fulfilling prayer life, but have difficultly finding time to pray. Life is busy and it’s not easy finding time during the day to stop everything.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen wrote in his autobiography Treasure in Clay about what he thought was a central key to finding time for prayer.
At the beginning of my priesthood I would make the Holy Hour during the day or the evening. As the years mounted and I became busier, I made the Hour early in the morning, generally before Holy Mass. Priests, like everybody else, are divided into two classes: roosters and owls. Some work better in the morning, others at night.
The question, then, that everyone needs to ask themselves is: “Am I a rooster or an owl?”
For many of us, life between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. is uncontrollable. Whether we commute to an office, stay at home with the kids, or have been retired for 10 years, the daylight hours are typically filled to capacity.
This gives us two primary options for an extended amount of prayer time: morning or evening. These two blocks of time are often blank slates and we typically have complete control over what happens. Sure, we may have to take Johnny to his basketball game, eat dinner, and take out the garbage, but every day we then choose what to do after the kids are in bed and all the chores are done. We can sit in front of the TV watching late-night television, play hours and hours of video games, or do a whole host of other activities.
Recreation and relaxing after a stressful day is not a bad thing. We need to rest and calm down and certainly should do some of the things that help us de-stress. The main point is that we have a choice of what we do before we go to bed and when we wake up, and choosing to pray for 15-30 minutes should be a real possibility.
If you want to have a fulfilling prayer life, figure out which part of the day can be extended to include prayer. Make it a priority and you will be surprised at how your life can radically change for the better.
Read more:
5 Prayers to start your morning right
Read more:
The best way to make time for prayer when you’re really busy
And today we celebrate...