The more one prays

The more one prays, the more time there is to pray. The earlier one prays, the more one prays. The more demands upon your time (the more children you have or the greater your responsibilities) then the more time one needs to pray.

Why doesn’t man just automatically speak to God? Why don’t we spend the day thinking of Him? Why doesn’t He storm into our lives and demand that we spend time speaking to Him? Why is it that I speak to Him most often when I am in pain? Why are my thoughts likely to move away from Him if things go well in my life?

When I begin to think like this, I realize how far man fell with the first, the original sin. Prayer is nothing more than “walking in the garden during the breezy time of the day with the Lord.” (c.f. Genesis 3:8 ) But since Original Sin man is usually found hiding in the bushes and afraid.

Prayer is getting to know the Lord in all His humility and all His grandeur. Two things that don’t go together in this world but always go together in the supernatural order.

Prayer is not feelings. Prayer can be accompanied by feelings but the feelings themselves are not prayers. Prayer is an act. Prayer involves the will.

I will to love God.
I will to serve Him.
I will to speak to Him.
I will do XYZ because of my prayer.
I will to change myself and be more like Him.
I will sacrifice.

Reading something uplifting, something inspiring is the food of prayer. Spiritual Reading is the basis of mental prayer. When the inspiring thought and feeling is brought into the will, then the soul can say it has prayed.

Upon recommendation, for my summer reading, I read Difficulites in Mental Prayer by Father Eugene Boylan. He explains these concepts very well:

“So too if our acts proceed from the will, it does not matter whether they affect our feelings or not. As long as we will to love God; by that very fact, with the help of grace, we do love Him.” (33)

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