Making Time to Pray

In a perfect world, I would have an hour a day to pray in peace and quiet and be focused totally on God. I never really appreciated the value of the consecrated contemplative life until I had a family. I'm sure that there are mothers out there who do find the time to sequester themselves and pray. I am not one of them. Instead, I pray throughout my day.

I say my first rosary of the day first thing in the morning after the alarm goes off but before I have to drag my weary body out of bed so that I can be dressed before the kids get up. After Isaac and I bring David to school, I let Isaac watch a little bit of television (please no hate mail on how bad it is to let your kids watch TV - I never let them watch more than 1 hour a day and to me it is worth it to have time to pray and collect myself for the day) while I say my morning prayers, Bible reading, and Divine Mercy Chaplet. I say two other rosaries during the day, usually while driving or exercising. I say my evening prayers before bed. I have been known to say them in the shower. Of course, I also pray at other times throughout the day, as needs arise, quick prayers that ask for help and insight.

I'm sharing my prayer life with you to show that it is possible to work prayer into your life. As I said, it is certainly not the ideal, but it works for me and I feel it is better to pray while doing something else than to not pray at all. St. Paul told us to "pray always." In my own way, I try.