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Monday, September 14, 2009

Prayer Life and Discernment

Oh Boy! While I pray a lot throughout the day, not formal prayer particularily, but prayer to God about different things that come to mind as I move through the chores of my day, prayer for family, for work, for our country, prayers of thankfulness, but it seems that my prayer time is spent more seeking resolution to concerns that I have about situations, and giving thanks, and less in adoration of our Lord, this I need to change! I have times each year where I am very fervent, I get up early, I read the Bible and meditate upon the Word of God, and spend time in formal prayer, this can last for a month or more, and then I seem to fizzle out, drift for serveral months, and then get back in line again, this cycle has gone on for a long time, and I get very frustrated with myself. Does anyone else deal with this struggle in their prayer life?

Another area that I struggle is with discernment, we often hear that we should pray for discernment regarding a particular issue we may be dealing with at the time, but it is very difficult to totally remove my own bias about the situation, and truly be open to what God's will is for me. I do know that whatever God's will is for me, it will not contradict the bible, or teachings of the church, but it is extremely difficult to remove my will from the equation. I know that I am not the only one who struggles with this.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, comments, thoughts, please share.

4 comments:

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

I don't have too much wisdom on the subject as I share the same struggles.

As to prayer, I try very hard to make sure I pray the Liturgy of the Hours morning and evening, each day. Having that structure helps me.

My favorite prayer for discernment is St. Francis of Assisi's Prayer before the Cross:
Most high, all-glorious, all-good God,
Bring light to the darkness of my heart.
Give me right faith, firm hope and perfect charity,
With wisdom and insight, O Lord,
That I might always discern
Your holy and true will.

Bean said...

Hi Barb SFO,
I like that prayer, it pretty much covers it all. I am not very disciplined with the Liturgy of the Hours, I always start with good intentions..., but you are correct it does add structure, and some of the passages are so beautiful, and truly they are adoration at it's best, my favorite is, my absolute favorite is Daniel 3, vs 53 through 90, everything is asked to bless the Lord, I just love it, it is one that I think of often when I am walking, I look at nature and think about the above verses, "Everything growing from the earth, bless the Lord, You springs, bless the Lord, All you birds of the air, bless the Lord, All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord" just a small excerpt, but you get the picture, it is an amazing piece of a praise to our Lord.
I will make an effort to get going with the Liturgy of the hours, and thank you for stopping by with suggestion.

Pax Et Bonum,

Martine

Rome_is_Home said...

Hi Martine!
I too struggle with how to pray..really how to begin when I pray. I just start with "Hail Mary" and then offer up my intentions. I think God hears us even our unspoken prayers. I think your dedication to your prayer life is awesome and inspiring to me :)
God bless
Amy

Bean said...

Thank you for stopping by Amy, I believe that God knows what are needs are, spoken, or unspoken, and know that he is always with us. Just keep praying, the more we talk to God the more we come to know him, it is difficult to have a relationship without communication, and our prayer life is communication with God.