Pray Without Ceasing
It seems impossible until we learn to enlarge our view of what prayer actually is.
This week on the Raised Catholic podcast, we take a look at what Paul directed the Thessalonians (and us) to do all those centuries ago:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
But how is praying without ceasing even possible given the huge list of things we need to do in an average day, and is praying without ceasing even healthy or something we would ever want to do? This week I’ll walk you through many of the prayer rhythms I use in an average day, and as we listen, let’s be on the lookout for the things in our own lives that we may not have thought were prayer, but which actually are. When we widen our view of what prayer actually is - a communication and communion with God - it makes Paul’s direction seem just a bit more possible than we once thought.
This week I am particularly prayerful as we enter into the first Vatican meeting of the Synod on Synodality. The participants are already gathered and on retreat and the meeting itself begins tomorrow (Wednesday, October 4, 2023), which is the Feast of St. Francis. Long-time Vatican watchers are saying this Synod could be the most impactful Church event since Vatican II, so please join me (and the whole Global Church) in prayer that the attendees will hear the Holy Spirit and follow where He is leading our Church in this time.
As usual, I have lots of resources in the show notes that I hope will help you connect with that week’s topic and engage with it more deeply for yourself, but this week I’ve included ways to stay up to date with the goings-on at the Synod in real time, so do check all of those out. Let’s be prayerful together this week in whatever way we pray: St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us. Come, Holy Spirit.
Listen to episode 144: Pray Without Ceasing on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts (or read the transcript), and then come back here and share some practice of yours that you now understand was a prayer all along. I’ll start. :)
Daily mass and then breakfast with my Dad felt like a prayer today as the Holy Spirit was with us, speaking and listening through each of us while we enjoyed pancakes and the best strawberry-blueberry jam. We received a little wink from God when the song my Dad had been raving about came on the restaurant's playlist not fifteen minutes after he mentioned it. God is so fun sometimes. :)
This was a timely episode for me. A couple of connections and observations in the past few days really perked up my prayer brain (or heart, I suppose.) On Monday, I was on the phone with a contractor who worked on our house last year. I needed him to fix something, and unsolicited, he went into a rambling story about a terrible accident he was in last year. I had wondered what was going on with him and frustrated that the work took so long (though he wasn't the one doing the actual labor). The surprise conversation was a good boost to my "you never know what someone is going through" mentality.
I sometimes become disheartened by my lack of prayer because this time in my life is very full. But then I have these prayerful moments when I slow down to notice the world around me or make connections between occurrences in my daily life. Those are indeed holy moments of prayer if we're willing to listen for God.