This is my confession: I’m really bad at praying.
Before you get all judgy on me, it’s not as bad as it sounds. I love praying, having a conversation with God is often the highlight of my day, but once I’m on my knees with my hands clasped my mind goes blank. What do I say? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I forget something really important? Then, after a mild panic attack, I realize I’m on the floor sweating and I haven’t actually started praying yet. So, I take a deep breath and I dive into unknown waters.
Silence is for more than just the lambs
Most of us aren’t too good with silence. Leave us alone with nothing but our own thoughts for too long and some pretty weird things might start surfacing or even worse, we might remember that really embarrassing thing we did eight years ago! Silence can be daunting but it’s a necessary evil when we pray. The silence allows us to be alone with God – no distractions, no other people, just us and our Father. Yes, sometimes this might be difficult but so is staying off your phone when you’re hanging out with a friend and that’s something you try to do so you can get some quality time with that person. Silence allows us to get that quality time with God.
Is that you, Lord?
For me, the hardest part can often be trying to figure out if the voice in my head is mine or God’s. It can be so easy to get an image of the person you have a big crush on and convince yourself that God is sending you a sign that you two are meant to be together forever but more realistically it’s your own thoughts and feelings telling you that (I know it’s hard to accept, I’m still not there myself). Equally you could be hearing God telling you something but you dismiss it as some crazy thought of your own. A lot of the time we all need to just take some time to really listen and forget what it is we want for ourselves because even though what we want may align with what God has planned, we still need to chill out and wait for His voice. He’s talking, we just need to listen.
Hail, Holy Queen
The Rosary is such a beautiful way to pray and not to mention easy! All the words are right there for you, you’ve just got to put your heart into it! It’s a wonderful opportunity to thank our Lady and I find the repetition is actually very relaxing. If you start your prayer with the Rosary you’ll find yourself in this beautiful state of mind that’s perfect having a good, long chat with the Lord. Even just holding your Rosary beads can feel like something special – it’s almost like you’re holding Mary’s hand and if you’re doing that then there’s nothing you can’t achieve.
Let us adore you
Alright, sit down and let’s talk Adoration. This is a pretty new concept for me but it’s also something that has completely taken over my life. I’m pretty lucky in where I live as there’s a Church that has Perpetual Adoration and quite frankly, anyone who doesn’t monopolize on something like that is a fool (a beautiful fool who is loved my God but a fool nonetheless). The fact that we have the chance to hang out with Jesus through Adoration is the coolest thing ever in my opinion! I have this t-shirt that says “either it’s Jesus or we’re worshipping bread” and I think that sums up how blessed we are in our religion to believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. Just to spend an hour with Jesus a week is an awesome way to build up your relationship with Him and I find praying comes a lot more naturally when I’m in His presence so if you haven’t tried Adoration before, I would really recommend giving it a shot!
Worship is more than a song
Worship music is awesome and it’s the perfect way to keep Jesus in your heart and in your mind when you’re doing everyday tasks – it’s basically the only thing I listen to when I’m driving. I could easily use this time to list all my favourite worship songs but instead I’ll offer a warning: it can be so easy to have your worship music playing and to forget what you’re listening to. There’s a song that says “you can sing all you want to and still get it wrong” and every time I hear that it hits me hard. You need to feel what you’re singing and you also need to pray in other ways as well. Listening to worship music – though beautiful – simply isn’t enough.
Relax, we’ve got this
Look, I’m by no means an expert here but I know I got hung up on the idea of there being a right and wrong way to pray and obsessing over that made me scared to pray for a long time. It can be too easy to psych yourself out and think you don’t have the right words or the right location to pray and then what happens is your just end up not praying! Jesus just wants to talk to you! He knows you might not always say the right thing but as long as you make the effort to converse with Him then you’re heading in the right direction! The more you pray the better you get at it and if you do it every day, you’ll be awesome at it in no time!
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