How often do you pray? How often do you worry? Worry is a call to prayer and any time you stop and pray whether you realize it or not it is a prompting by the Holy Spirit. How great is our God that he has given us the gift of prayer. We are three dimensional beings and we must be fulfilled spiritually, physically and emotionally.
It is important to be good stewards of our bodies and as a personal trainer, I am in love with taking care of my body by doing my best to get plenty of rest, regular exercise and eating healthily. I know for myself, as we all do, at times in our lives we struggle to find balance. But in order to have peace and joy in all circumstances of life, you need prayer. Prayer is so powerful because it is not only an outlet to relieve stress and worry but it cultivates trust in God. Prayer transforms you through time.
An example, I can compare it to is, when a person starts exercising they may not be very strong and have very little endurance to do much at the beginning. They will have greater physical limitations than someone who workouts regularly. But if that person stays committed to making time or even better scheduling a certain time each day to exercise, as the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, that same individual will not recognize themselves in the mirror. In the long run, the individual committed to consistent exercise and healthy eating habits will be leaner, stronger, have more energy and more optimism about life. They will have gone down a few pant sizes and their faces will have changed as well. I see prayer the same way, at first it may seem hard to “find time”, but just like an hour workout is only 4% of your day taking even 15minutes to pray is doable.
If you can commit to prayer you will grow in fortitude which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s those individuals in this life that have a deep and rich prayer life that are blessed with many beautiful gifts from the Holy Spirit, such as good counsel, they are sensitive to sin and more alert to paths that may not be God’s will for their lives.
Whether or not you are consistent in your prayer life, today is a new day. You can start today. I have found certain devotions help me focus and draw me to prayer. I look forward to my prayer time and it is a priority in my day. There are so many beautiful devotions to learn about and that is another aspect of the Catholic faith that I love. Yes prayer can be just you talking to God and this is very important but devotions such as the Holy Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet and Novenas are amongst my favorite. These devotions have transformed my spiritually journey.
I encourage you to pray and find devotions that touch your heart and help draw you closer to God. As each person is different, different devotions will appeal to every person. Although, I encourage devotion to the Holy Rosary most fervently as it trains your mind to focus on the mysteries of Christ’s life and since our imaginations are not static but constantly on, it takes discipline and focus to keep calling your mind back to the life of Christ as you pray along The Way of his joyful, sorrowful, luminous and glorious mysteries of his life. But what I love most about the rosary is the peace in my heart after praying it especially at times when this is the devotion that I turned to seeking consolation and seeking God’s will in my life. The 15 promises of the rosary are encouraging. I believe in them and have seen many graces and signs in my life that I know are from God. A gift given to me by my frequent petitions through the Holy Rosary.
Prayer is a way to have a conversation with God and an opportunity to invite him into your life. God loves you so much he wants to be involved in all aspects of your life but he is not a pushy, self-imposing controlling God, he waits for you to approach him.
He waits for you to tell him about your problems, questions or anxieties. He wants you to tell him about your life. As it is important in all conversations to speak, it is just as important to listen. In your prayer time, remember to make time to listen to Jesus. If you are always talking how can you give him a chance to reply. Another way to pray and listen, that is very powerful is Eucharistic Adoration. Almost every town has a chapel where you can just go sit and be with our Lord. I pray you take time to visit him regularly and just listen. Allow him to transform your soul, he will speak to your heart.
How beautiful is the love language of God, he speaks to us in this gift of prayer. Prayer, has many forms, meditative, contemplative, conversational and also listening which almost always is overlooked. I encourage you to listen to promptings of the Holy Spirit and when you feel worried pray. When you are overtaken with the beauties of nature, the moon at night, the flowers of the earth and the stars in the sky, pray in thanksgiving for his gifts.
Remember to thank God for his goodness and cherish the gift of prayer. Prayer is our connection to the Almighty God, our creator, he is the source of all that is good. My prayer is for you to run to God in prayer and find the unceasing peace and hope it provides. Remember to listen to Jesus speak, he longs to tell you how much he loves you. May the Holy Spirit always guide you.
