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How to pray when you’re busy

Does it ever feel like you're too busy to pray? Perhaps you have a demanding job or you've got studies keeping you busy. Whatever the reason, Fr Ed Broom offers some excellent advice to help you pray during those hectic times where prayer feels impossible.

Life, Prayer and Devotion, On by Fr Ed Broom, OMV

“I can’t pray because I have a demanding job/I’m too busy with my studies. Work/school takes all my time, and if I take time out, I won’t be any good at my job/studies, and I will fall behind or even get fired/fail my classes.”

This is the devil telling you that your job or schooling is the most important thing, which you accept, because your mind works in a fundamentally utilitarian way, meaning that your value and self-worth depend on how much you produce, fostered by materialism – how many goods and honours of this world you can accumulate and enjoy. The decision to put God before all else is the most radical one you will ever make, but in another way it should be the easiest, because everything good in our lives is made better through a deepening relationship with God. If your job, education or other commitments truly prevent you from praying, the question is not whether you should pray, but whether your work and schooling will bring you true happiness – not just in the next life, but even in this life. St Augustine chased honours, riches and sensual pleasures for the first thirty-one years of his life and was never satisfied. Only when he surrendered his life to Christ was his heart satisfied: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

A good reflection would be to weigh the material things and the pleasures of this short life on earth, on the one hand, against eternity, which is for ever and ever, on the other hand. Jesus said: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

Enjoy this post? You’ll love the book: How to Overcome Distraction in Prayer

Prayer can be a struggle. Whether it’s because of busyness at work or school, the chores and clamour of family life, intrusive worries and anxieties, or ever-present digital distractions. Many of us struggle to form a habit of prayer. Fr Ed Broom is here to help Catholics learn to pray. In this book, he teaches us to recognise the causes of distraction in our lives and gives simple, practical advice on how to overcome them so we can speak to God with our whole heart and mind.

Order your copy of How to Overcome Distraction in Prayer today to find this blog and much more helpful advice!