On Tuesday, we continued our Advent Prayer Retreat series called “Atomic Habits of Prayer.” I continued toggling between prayer as a discipline and prayer as an art and focused on the second law of behavior change, Making It Attractive for the discipline side and then introduced the second stage of prayer called Talking to God as the gift side and spent some time drilling into the science of best practices for habit formation and what makes something attractive enough for us to want to do it over and over again and introduced the concept of how the environment matters more than intention. In the business world, there is an adage that says, “culture eats strategy every day.” In other words, we can spend a lot of time on planning some great project at work but if the culture of the office is not inclined to execute on the plan, it will not matter because the culture will win every time.
The same is true for us in trying to pray every day in deeper ways. We can plan and intend great things, but the environment of our home will play a bigger role than anything. In other words, we need to have a “place” dedicated for prayer that is conducive to prayer, which is comfortable, beautiful, inviting and warm. Otherwise, we will not pray often. We might be successful in doing it initially but eventually it will wear off and we will lose interest.
While I acknowledge that not many people can dedicate a whole room to prayer (and that is not necessary or even preferable), we all can create a prayer “zone” within our living room, bedroom, or other room. I gave an example of how my bedroom is divided into 4 zones: 1) Bed—sleeping, 2) Clothes closet—dressing, 3) Exercise equipment—exercise, and 4) Prayer desk—prayer. I shared how I have a motto, “One space—one use.” I never use my bed for reading, nor my prayer desk for work, nor my exercise equipment for drying my clothes! One space—one use! To be successful long term with prayer we have to create a space or zone within which we only pray and nothing else. It does not have to be a large space but must be a dedicated one. If we make it attractive and comfortable then we will want to spend time in it and that is the purpose.
The session ended with how to increase our ability to talk to God. Talking to God is often called extemporaneous prayer or spontaneous prayer. It is basically telling God what’s on our own mind or in our heart. I suggested that we imagine talking to God like the way we talk to a close friend, parent, or teacher.
Sometimes the biggest challenge we have in this type of prayer is that we believe that we have to act a certain way, or say things a certain way in order to keep God happy. But we need to believe that God loves us unconditionally and only wants what is good for us and will listen to us like a loving parent or friend.
As we pray this type of prayer we get everything off our chest. We do not filter or censor what we are saying but just let it all out. We cannot filter or censor what we are saying as if we might offend God. We must be completely honest and forthright. God will listen without any agenda or interruption. God will just listen because he knows that is what we need right now, like a good friend. Then I closed with a few prayer exercises for homework. Maybe you can try them yourself CLICK HERE (there are 2 pages). Hopefully you can catch up with the sessions by watching them online on our St Simon PresentationsYouTube Channel CLICK HERE.
Next week, we will move into the third law of behavior change Making It Easy and I will talk more about the prayer stage of Listening to God. Again, we will recognize the discipline and art aspects of this level of prayer. In this prayer method I will explain how to avoid the common pitfalls of listening to God and what are some best practices here. Come join us, I’d love to see you in-person if possible, on Tuesday, December 13 at 7-8pm and the session will also be available online CLICK HERE.
On Monday, December 12 at 7pm we will have the communal sacrament of reconciliation. We will have 6 priests available for individual confession knowing that many of you have not had the opportunity to go to confession because of the Covid19 pandemic over the last two years. Hopefully we all feel comfortable coming in person and being reconciled with one another and with God. Join us and let’s find peace among us.
Finally, please join us for the Saint Simon Christmas Village Lights Drive Through on Friday and Saturday, 6pm-8pm. It will be a great evening, full of light, community and creativity! Come share in the Christmas spirit, leave feeling enlightened and ready to share the light of the Lord.
God bless,
Fr. Brendan