Dear Missionary Disciples of Jesus Christ,

Prayer?

    Prayer is raising your heart and mind to God. Prayer is conversing with God. Sometimes we may think we don't have time to pray. This thought is just not true. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me as a sinner.” How long did that take to read?

    We can pray at any time, anywhere, quietly or out loud. “Come, Holy Spirit, enkindle in me the fire of your love.” Perhaps that took a little longer. Both the Our Father and the Hail Mary take seconds. Our Father is the prayer that Jesus explicitly gave to his apostles. Recently, I have tried to recite the Angelus three times a day. The Angelus prayer takes less than a minute and is customarily recited at 6 a.m., 12 p.m., and 6 p.m. “Thank you, Father Son Holy Spirit, for my life, my breath, my heartbeat.” You can also offer prayers of thanksgiving throughout the day.
     Last Sunday, we heard Jesus tell a parable about how we should always pray and not lose heart. In the Catechism, paragraphs 2743 and 2744, there are two lines I want to highlight: It is always possible to pray, and prayer is a vital necessity. We can all pray throughout the day, while doing tasks, walking, and working. 
    Do we take time out, just for prayer? We can pray with Sacred Scripture. Just look up how to do Lectio Divina, and you will find some simple directions. We can meditate, think about God, God's love for us, etc., we can have a conversation with God, or we can just listen. The Rosary is a meditative prayer.
     We all have 24 hours a day. Suppose we sleep for eight hours and work for eight hours, that leaves us with 8 x 60 =480 minutes. Just 5% of that would be 24 minutes. Or 24 minutes would be 1.6% of the 24-hour day. Let's just begin

Peace,



Father Maassen