How to kick-start your nightly prayer

Maybe it is time to add something new to your routine.

We all find ourselves dreaming of what it would be like to consecrate our day to prayer, to living a life of continual prayer. At night, exhausted after a full day, we have but a few minutes sitting on the edge of our beds, half-asleep.The prayer of the eleventh hour represents the last five minutes, the last breath. It most often consists in rosaries that we fail to recite in full, or in a few prayers, albeit beautiful ones, but always the same. All of this is better than not praying at all, however it does not sustain the soul. How can we inject some life into it all?

Finding the right moment before going to bed

A life of prayer can only be possible if you pray daily. You cannot excuse it under a pretext of boredom and monotony. First, you need to find the right time. Nighttime is not always ideal. Isn’t there a better suited moment, the turning point between two activities? For example, you could pray between dinnertime and the start of your evening, or as you come back from work. It is up to each of us to find the right moment, for there is one.

What counts is that it is quality moment. Why give God the scraps of your day? The intimacy to which He invites us deserves better. Quality time takes precedence over everything else. You don’t pray with your hands on the keys of your laptop – you offer your Lord the attention He deserves. This is true friendship.

To renew your evening prayer

Love adores surprises. Alternate your evening prayer with contributions made by religious authors, from the Gospels, from the Divine Office. The goal of prayer is to sustain, and even provide, pleasure. Consider getting a book of the Liturgy of the Hours or subscribe to Magnificat, so you can pray at any point of the day.You can recite it alone, or in a group, be sustained by the Scriptures, and enlarge your heart.

Brother Thierry-Dominique Humbrech

Read more:
The simple word to say to begin all your prayers