To pray in the midst of the mundane is simply and strongly to assert that this dull and tiring day is holy and its simple labors are the stuff of God's saving presence for me now. To pray simply because it is prayer time is no small act of immersion in the God who is willing to wait for us to be conscious, to be ready, to be willing to become new in life. Prayer, Benedictine spirituality demonstrates, is not a matter of mood. To pray only when we feel like it is more to seek consolation than to risk conversion. To pray only when it suits us is to want God on our terms. To pray only when it is convenient is to make the God-life a very low priority in a list of better opportunities. To pray only when it feels good is to court total emptiness when we most need to be filled. The hard fact is that nobody finds time for prayer. The time must be taken. There will always be something more pressing to do, something more important to be about than the apparently fruitless, empty act of prayer. But when that attitude takes over, we have begun the last trip down a very short road because, without prayer, the energy for the rest of life runs down. The fuel runs out. We become our own worst enemies: we call ourselves too tired and too busy to pray when, in reality, we are too tired and too busy not to pray. Eventually, the burdens of the day wear us down and we no longer remember why we decided to do what we're doing: work for this project, marry this woman, have these children, minister in this place. And if I cannot remember why I decided to do this, I cannot figure out how I can go on with it. I am tired and the vision just gets dimmer and dimmer. .Joan D. Chittister
About This Quote
A key part of realizing that prayer is not something you do when you feel like it with no purpose or motive, but rather something that must be done, is that it involves a certain mindset. Prayer involves a kind of living out of a philosophy of life. It is a way of life. When you do things the right way, you experience a certain grace and sort of serene quality in your life.
You feel good. You feel at peace with yourself and your circumstances. You know that things are going to work out for the best.
In other words, prayer involves a certain mentality, a certain attitude toward yourself and others, a certain way of looking at the world. And that attitude is about being attentive to God's presence and active in your thoughts and actions as a response to that presence.
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