Fitting Prayer into a Busy Life

As soon as I saw the title in the May 2011 issue of St. Anthony's Messenger, I knew Fitting Prayer into a Busy Life" was an article I had to read.

Linda McCullough Moore tells of how, inspired by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (?1614 - 1691) who prayed eight times a day, she made the decision to make time for formal prayer four times a day for twenty minutes.

The truest analogy I can draw here is to eating. Too often my prayer life was like being on life support, my nourishment coming from an IV attached to one very used and abused vein, and I was subsisting on glucose and electrolytes or, at the very best, small snacks.

Imagine a person who, for years and years, has grabbed coffee and a bagel each morning and then fasted until the next day, taking only sips of water, juice or soda, maybe grabbing a cracker or a pretzel when her busy life allowed it.

And then, imagine one day she hears of this new approach to nourishment: something called meals three times a day. Cereal with milk and coffee in the morning; an entire sandwich at lunchtime; meat, pasta, salad, crusty bread for dinner; and, at bedtime, a piece of apple pie such as you haven’t tasted since you were a child.

That comparison comes closest to describing the change in my life once I started praying 20 minutes, four times a day. It gave new meaning to the lyrics “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 34:9a).

I especially appreciate her closing sentence: Prayer is astonishing. It is the most outrageous and enlivening thing that we can do.

Read the full article here: Fitting Prayer into a Busy Life