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!
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 says that distractions are like
bees fluttering around our head. I used to be terrified of bees – get one
within 10 or 20 feet of me and I stopped everything and focused intently on the
bee. Some of us do that with a distraction – it comes and we fixate on it. Then
we fixate on our fixation, and start tracing the chain of thoughts back to
where we started. When I learned that bees want nothing to do with humans and
will avoid them, only paying attention to someone if they are a threat, then I
learned to ignore bees and even appreciate them. I don’t mess with them and
they don’t mess with me. Distractions can come to be like that. We don’t focus
on them. Another one! Poof! And turn back to God.
Prayer is
really more about trying to pray – trying and trying and trying again.
Let’s look
at what good comes out of fighting temptations and distractions during prayer
time. Say you’ve committed to a daily prayer time of 20 minutes. Let’s say one
day you only have two distractions, and both time faithfully turn back to the
Lord (even if you went down a couple of rabbit holes before turning back). OK,
so you made two acts of selflessness, turning from your own thoughts, own self,
back to focus directly on the Lord. Two out of 20 minutes. Hmm.
Now let’s
be more realistic. Say in your 20 minutes that day you have 101 distractions.
Normal prayer time. Well, 101 times of saying no to self and turning to God,
saying yes to God – that’s really great! 101 acts of loving God and turning
away from self. Wow! Maybe you felt miserable in the battle, but look how
you’ve grown in love! That was a grace! 101 graces!
Prayer is
meeting God in the midst of our human reality. Messy. Imperfect. Like getting a
manger next to an ox for the newborn Babe’s bed. Messy. Real. Humbling.
The school
of Divine Love that prayer is is where we learn to love by giving our time to
God, our energy to God, our attention to God, ourselves to God. Over and over
and over again.
If we had
no distractions, than we’ve either fallen asleep or we’re dead.
Well,
practically so. But not absolutely so. Sometimes Divine Love does break through
and hold us in His quietness and stillness. And sometimes the Lord also gives
marvelous spiritual consolations, good feelings, wonderful insightful thoughts,
great Scriptural illuminations. He can touch us in a thousand ways – just the
way we individually need His touch at that moment.
But God knows we also need other moments. Moments of
stretching. Learning to take up His Cross and follow His narrow way. And many,
many times – enough to feel as if it were all the time – it means fighting 101
distractions in prayer. Don’t stop. Keep at it. Pray every day no matter what.
Let the bees buzz. Focus on God. He is loving you at this moment and wants to
be with you.
Dibby Green
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.