How I Found Time to Pray

Let me be clear about one thing; prayer is not something I am particularly good at. During my time in seminary, community prayer started at 6:15 AM, and despite my best efforts, I often found myself “resting in the Spirit.” Even when I was awake, I spent a good chunk of time worrying about homework and tests, rather than clocking in “good prayer time.” When the Lord called me out of seminary, my prayer life sadly declined. Without the structure and support of the seminary community, a mountain of reasons not to pray slowly rose up in front of me. Excuses ranging from the mundane to the bizarre whirled through my mind every time I thought about setting aside time to pray.

“I don't have time to pray before work.”

“Studying for this test is more important than praying.”

“I'm stuck in sin, and prayer isn't going to change that.”

Without prayer, my life seemed dull and pointless. Every day was the same; wake up late, scramble to get to class on time (I was late almost every day), go to work right after class, sleep, and repeat. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that prayer needed to be a part of my life, but I couldn't see how I could fit a whole hour of prayer into my busy day.

And then someone reminded me that I didn't have to pray for an hour every day.

5 minutes spent in prayer is better than no time spent in prayer.

With that in mind, I made a commitment to pray the rosary during my 40 minute drive to campus. Instead of listening to music or sports talk shows, I decided that I would spend that time with God, asking for the strength to show love to my atheist professor or the grouchy lady at work. When I made that simple promise, all of my excuses melted away, and suddenly my schedule was riddled with dozens of prayer-shaped holes.

Before making that one small change to my life, waking up was the worst part of my day; after making that change, waking up became something I could offer up for the souls in Purgatory. My drive from class to work was usually a stressful race to make it on time; it's hard to be stressed out when you're praying a Divine Mercy chaplet. I even found time to pray the Liturgy of the Hours in between classes, using my iBreviary app (yes, that is a thing, and yes, you should download it right now).

To recap, I am not very good at prayer. I'm often distracted, and sometimes it seems like God is talking but I can't hear Him. And you know what? That's OK. I'm glad prayer is hard sometimes, because that proves that it's worth my time. I'm glad that I struggle to pray, because that shows me how I can improve. And I'm glad that it takes effort, because now I've stopped lying to myself. I do have time to pray, and so do you.

Start small. That's all it takes for God to work in your life.