How to harmonize prayer with the struggle of life?

People in Prayer

People claim, I don’t have time to pray…even if I would like to, I don’t have a moment to spare…it is very difficult because of all the obligations I have….it is so difficult to pray…

What can be done about it?

To harmonize prayer with life’s struggles, one must consider faith and a life with God as an adventure of the spirit, which begins by leaving aside all the rules of common sense, such as calculations of probabilities and the search for explanations, so that one can pass through their own interior world into the world of pure and naked faith.

In the first place you must search for spaces of silence, in order to be alone and look inside yourself.  We know it isn’t easy, but if we do the right kind of exercises to calm ourselves down and leave aside the outer world of noise and distraction that perturb our tranquility and rob us of our peace, we will be making progress along this road.

Furthermore if our bodies are tense, it is a good idea to “let go” of these nervous accumulations because they produce a shriveling leading to a general state of alarm and disquiet.  Once we have achieved this state of peace and tranquility, the last step into the world of the spirit is to silence the mental world, which is the most difficult and decisive step.  Every memory or desire must disappear, just like instantly erasing a blackboard.

It is this exterior world, physical as well as mental, that keeps us away from the fertile encounter with He Who loves us unconditionally.  Because of our agitated life style, it is crucial to do these silencing exercises before praying, and this is recommendable for most people.

In order to achieve a profound, transforming type of prayer, we are proposing a way to pray that is a kind of conversation one has with an intimate friend, which allows us to experience this friendship with whom we know, loves us.  We are confiding our own life to Him and just as we would tell a friend about our lives, we also come into the presence of God bearing our entire burden of difficulties and problems.

This encounter with God turns on a motor that generates internal forces, and under its influence we are able to glimpse the day by day struggles which will come upon us, and we are filled with the meekness, the patience and the acceptance we have received from Him in this face to face dialog. He will help us find the essentials and leave aside the nonessentials without protest; He will always provide us with the possibility of free choice.  Listening to God in an intimate setting will gladden our hearts, and teach us to enjoy and be grateful for all the good in our lives.

Life always brings new hurdles which we often overcome with difficulty, but with Him as our unconditional friend, we know that we can nurture ourselves once again through that vital encounter which restores the strength we have lost in our struggles.  This way we are led into a circle of love going from life to prayer and from prayer to life. Thus we can say that prayer leads us from God’s enchantment to the enchantment of life.

God is innovation, and this intimate relationship will bring new and original lights into our firmament and will fill our lives with meaning.  This experience of prayer and life with God is absolutely original, nobody else will feel it in the same way; it is different and original for everyone, because it is done alone.  Saint Francis tells us that you can’t “know” of the things you have not experienced in the realm of the spirit, “You only know of the things you have lived.”

Come along, we are inviting you.  Let us begin anew.

Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga, PLW Founder