Learning to Pray (Again)

As I said on the other thread, the "noise" of daily life is not truly a problem for me. I can find prayer time if I am so inclined, I admit.

The "noise" that interferes with my potential "quiet" contemplation of the divine presence is that of organized religion -- which, whatever the sect IMHO, shouts out its anger and disapproval (and condemnation) of my current condition, let alone my other life situations.

And I grew up in a religion where you have to go through man to get to G-d, which doesn't help me in changing my habits ...

Oddly enough, it was the rosary that tweaked my interest back into prayer. Being raised Lutheran/Anglican, my knowledge of a rosary was probably even less than yours! I picked up an "anglican" rosary and looked into the lutheran rosary prayers. I eventually adopted a celtic one that I quite liked. Now that I am commuting on the bus, I don't find myself using it anymore - instead, I found some recordings of Morning and Evening Prayer (catholic, of course!) and put them on a small MP3 player, so that on my way to work and on the way home, I can do morning and evening prayer. This works well, since I'm working towards a novitiate as a Franciscian tertiary and we are required to pray one of the daily offices. I find that I am much more relaxed at work if I have managed to go through morning prayer than if I haven't. At night, I find myself using compline, although with my current relapse, I have to admit that I've sloughed that one off for a while. Having some sort of route prayer really helps when the depression hits. I'm on the road to recovery - I'm almost sleeping through the night again and have stopped having naps, but I'm still really tired by the end of the day. Hang in there!

I believe as long as you are doing a solitary activity like swimming, walking, jogging - you can also pray at the same time. The Bible says,
" Be still and know that I am God." I believe the stillness being referred to is a mental stillness.......or unbusying of our minds. If our minds are cluttered with daily demands of our time and minds, we can't hear God or talk with God....we are too distracted. If the mind is still - then we are still and can pray and commune with God. I believe successful prayer is possible when we try to align our minds and our spirits together at the time we are praying. To align with our spirit the mind must be quieted down. I find even when I am sitting still at my kitchen table praying or reading my bible or something else inspirational, I can still be distracted in my mind and notice then that my mind wandered. And so, I gently draw it back to quiet again and also ask God to help me keep my mind clear from the other things. I wondor how many soldiers on their way, marching, and very possible scared even, prayed before they reached the battle sight and had to fight their enemy? Any way - I'm with Angela. Thank you Angela, I too try to expand my prayer list for all of mankind, not just for me or loved ones and friends. We were all made to be spirit beings as well as emotional, physical. It's just that some are farther along on their spiritual journey, while others don't know or don't want it yet, or are just lost. I pray for all of mankind to want to look for and find a relationship with our Master Creator, our heavenly Father. God bless you all.....and thanks for sharing on this site.........Diane