Still Stuck on How to Pray?        There are some people who, no matter what you say, still feel stuck in trying to pray. They don’t know how to start. They don’t know what to do. God seems far away and they feel like they don’t have a clue.       Hey, all is not lost! If you are one of these people there is a little booklet, available on Amazon, Barns & Noble, and elsewhere in English, Spanish, and many other languages. You can even get it for Kindle. The booklet is by Linda Schubert and is called “Miracle Hour, a Method of Prayer That Will Change Your Life.”       What Schubert proposes is dividing an hour into five-minute segments. We can do anything for just five minutes, right? See, it’s easy! Only five minutes! You can pray it a segment at a time, or pray 6 segments for a half hour, or all twelve for an hour. The 12 segments are:         Praise       Sing to the Lord       Spiritual Warfare       Surrender       Release of the Holy Spirit       Repentance

Distractions in Prayer, Part II       The prior discussion on Distractions in Prayer applies most of the time. But not always. Sometimes it depends on the nature of the distraction.       One very simple but incredibly effective strategy for certain distractions at prayer (or when trying to sleep!) is to have handy paper and pen. When some thought, some anxiety – especially one of those never-ending to-do items! – comes to mind, just jot it down quickly, and then return to trying to pray (or trying to sleep). No need to think about it anymore; it’s there. The thought can go.       Other times a distraction is a real concern. Sometimes maybe we are supposed to pray about it. For example, if your mind wanders to some tragedy in the news, just gently turn to the Lord and pray for the people involved in the tragedy. Or say your child’s struggle with addiction comes to mind. Gently turn to the Lord and pray for the child.       But then what can sometimes be difficult is that we c

Distractions in Prayer       It doesn’t take very long for a person to begin regular daily prayer when he throws up his hands and wants to scream – in good Charlie Brown style – “ARUGGGGH!” Distractions! Distractions! Will they never end!       Well, welcome to the human race. We all know visiting with friends and all the while thinking about a million other things. Our mental capacities allow for multiple levels of awareness and thought. But then we want to have a heart-to-heart conversation with someone – then we naturally try to stay focused. The same with prayer. We just keep trying to focus on God no matter what comes.       Every little “try” is a turning from self and back to God.       Consider Jesus praying in Gethsemane. Did He have a sweet time of communion? No! What about when he was praying and fasting 40 days in the desert? No! He was fighting against enormous temptations. Talk about distractions!       St. Theresa of Avila gives some very practical advice. She

Prayer as Placing Ourselves in the Way of God's Love       In continuing with our series on prayer, this article will generously quote from the book, The Hermit , by David Torkington, and specifically from a dialogue between the narrator, who is seeking spiritual help with his rather dead spiritual life, and a man recommended to him, Peter.       Peter speaks of how a ne’er do well cousin totally changed his life when he fell in love and received deep love from a remarkable woman who became his wife. Peter says, “I was fascinated by the tremendous power of love in action. No power on earth could have done anything for my cousin. It helped me to realize that if we could somehow place ourselves in the way of God’s love, put ourselves under the influence of His creative power, then like [my cousin], we might be radically and permanently changed; not superficially, but from our innermost parts.       “When I began to read the New Testament in earnest, I saw that this is what it’s