Quality or Quantity, which do you seek?<\/p>\n
Quality or Quantity of what?\u00a0 I’m talking about prayer.\u00a0 Today I was reading an article written to priests talking about\u00a0 people who confess their prayer life isn’t what should it should be.\u00a0 How do feel your prayer life is?<\/p>\n
Quantity – do you spend enough time<\/em> in prayer?\u00a0 How much is enough?\u00a0 The answer might be different for each of us.\u00a0 There is no rule that specifies exactly how much we should pray.\u00a0 Of course, there are recommendations.\u00a0 I begin by saying if the only time you pray is on Sunday at church,<\/em>then you are not praying enough.\u00a0 How about a couple of times a week?\u00a0 It probably still isn’t enough.\u00a0 Once a day?\u00a0 Now we are getting close.\u00a0 The point of prayer is to stay close to God throughout our day.\u00a0 That doesn’t have to mean praying continuously.\u00a0 How about grace before each meal and once a day in private prayer?<\/p>\n Quality – The quality of prayer is as important as, if not more important than, the quantity of prayer.\u00a0 Quality is where I admit I struggle with my own prayer life.\u00a0 Now, I pray the Liturgy of the Hours several times throughout the day and say Mass.\u00a0 I don’t have to work too hard to pray some<\/em>.\u00a0 My problem is that when I am in a hurry I rush through the prayers without reflecting on the words or taking the time to listen to what God has to say to me.<\/p>\n There is no good way to “measure” the quality of prayer.\u00a0 One might suggest if the prayers are answered then that means the quality was good.\u00a0 If we are praying for\u00a0something bad for us, then hopefully we won’t get it.<\/p>\n I would say good prayer is when you feel the presence of God.\u00a0 However, the inverse, that when you don’t feel God’s presence, doesn’t necessarily mean it is not good prayer.\u00a0 Sometimes, in the midst of all the challenges of our lives, it is difficult to know God’s presence.<\/p>\n If we can’t measure the quality of prayer how might we have an idea when we are on the right track?<\/p>\n First, I would suggest if you are running through your prayers as fast as you can to go do something else, then you are not praying well.\u00a0 Ask yourself “Do you think about what you are praying for or just reading a list?\u00a0”<\/p>\n Do you give God a chance to talk?\u00a0 This can be a hard one.\u00a0 We face many distractions in our lives.\u00a0 When we stop talking (or reading our prayers) all those distractions come rushing at us and we can’t hear what God has to say.\u00a0 Sometimes, I don’t know whether to fight the distractions, ignore them, or to pray about them.\u00a0 Yes, I said pray about the distractions.\u00a0 Now, we can’t listen to every distraction but if the same thing keeps distracting us, maybe it is something that we need to pray about.<\/p>\n In completative prayer, the person quiets themselves and “ignores” the distractions simply quieting themselves without “thinking”.\u00a0 When I do this I do feel God’s presence in a way that is difficult to describe.\u00a0 In my own prayer, I do better at reading scripture or other religious material and thinking about what it means to me (meditative prayer).\u00a0 But this is not just a matter of reading words.\u00a0 You have to stop, sometimes after every sentence, to think about what you have read means to you.<\/p>\n I can’t tell you the perfect way to pray.\u00a0 You have to find that for yourself.\u00a0 Lent starts in less than two weeks.\u00a0 Maybe it is time for you to work on your prayer life.<\/p>\n Peace,<\/p>\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quality or Quantity, which do you seek? Quality or Quantity of what?\u00a0 I’m talking about prayer.\u00a0 Today I was reading an article written to priests talking about\u00a0 people who confess their prayer life isn’t what should it should be.\u00a0 How do feel your prayer life is? Quantity – do you spend enough time in prayer?\u00a0 …<\/p>\n