St. Augustine said, “Your continuous desire is your continuous prayer. If you cease to desire then you will have fallen silent in your prayer.” That’s good news for people like me! I often have the desire to pray and can’t seem to focus long enough to do it well. I have been praying about that! But because I have such trouble concentrating, I’m probably not praying very effectively. Do you see the irony?
God made each of us and He knows us better than we know ourselves. So my inattentiveness is no surprise to Him. But my seeming lack of ability to be still is of great consternation to me. But probably not so much to God.
So, thankfully, God provided this great quote from St. Augustine that I opened with. And then, today, I got this video from Ascension Press in my Inbox. Normally these videos go to my Social or maybe it’s my Promotional folder in my Google account. But today, there it was in my Primary Gmail Inbox! And the question in the Subject box, “Do you get distracted during prayer?” certainly got my immediate attention. I simply had to watch. It’s only a little over 10 minutes long. And it made me feel so much better. Father Malachy, who is headed to, if not already in Nicaragua, gives this wonderful analogy about parents and babies that I don’t want to spoil. Just watch it, OK?
Another thing he shares is ways to slow our minds and hearts down before and during prayer. Good stuff. I share with you in case you experience the same challenges I face concerning distraction and prayer. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. But I don’t think so.
God bless you, Father Malachy, in your new ‘duty station,’ as we say in the Army! And thank you, for helping me and I’m sure many others. “Poco a poco!” Little by little.
Drowning in Lemonade 