Overcoming distractions during prayer

By Carlos X.

St. Peter in Tears by Murillo (Wikimedia Commons).

"That labor of the intellect which we call meditation," wrote the Venerable Fr. Luis De La Puente (1554-1624), “is among the most difficult things about mental prayer.” We all know the reasons: “It is easy to have several things in mind at once, and to dash from one thing to another without order or concert, but it is very difficult to think about a single thing with concentration, with fixed memory and understanding of God, without diverting to or spilling over to other things; even the great Saints have this trouble sometimes, and they complain about it.”

Fr. La Puente prescribes four potent tools to avoid distractions during prayer:

• Profound humility
• Prayer itself
• Faith
• Spiritual fortitude

Fr. La Puente was the subject of Archbishop Óscar A. Romero’s thesis for his doctorate studies in theology.  Romero never obtained the degree but he put Fr. La Puente’s methods into practice. Fr. La Puente spurred the young Romero to strive to perfect his devotion.  “In recent days the Lord has inspired in me a great desire for holiness, after I had read some of Father La Puente,” Romero wrote in his diary in February 1943."I have been thinking of how far a soul can ascend if it lets itself be possessed entirely by God." But, like the saints that Fr. La Puente tells us had trouble concentrating during prayer, Archbishop Romero sometimes felt distracted.


Continue reading at Carlos' blog Super Martyrio.

Are you entangled in passing things?

By Michael Incorvia

José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior
Scene of Adolfo Pinto’s Family
Wikimedia Commons

St. John of Avila noted in a letter: Say in your heart, “I am being led captive to death; what is this world to me? I am going to God; I do not wish to entangle myself in earthly things.”

Matters of the day and concerns of life are to be dealt with, but should not divert attention from the ultimate goal, drawing nearer to God through service to Him.   God works in us bear fruit when the will is turned away from self and to God.   Life should consist of drawing ever nearer to God; thanking the Lord for what He has asked us to bear, and ever contemplating the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   We can perform small acts in service of God, and God can speak and work through small events in our life.  Be ever attentive to the presence of the Lord, for He is continually present to us.


Michael blogs at To Love and Truth.

Are you listening to the white noise of life?

By Robert Batch

RCA 621TS Television Receiver (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

I was down at my cousins' house for the evening to celebrate their grandma’s 90th birthday!  I have to say that whenever the cousins get together it is always an…interesting time to say the least.  I say that with a very, very positive attitude!

As I was driving back home it was quite the ride.  For one, the weather is absolutely dreadful outside!  It has been raining all day, so it made it quite difficult to see what was going on, on the roads.  Plus, with the rain, it was interfering with the radio signal.  There are a few good stations around where I live – but one of my favorite ones is Star 99.1 – a Christian Radio Station.  Anyway, as I was scanning through the frequencies, I kept hitting the famous static “white noise”.  So now we have static white noise, and bad weather, it’s really not going so well!

You are probably thinking to yourself – wow, Robert is really on a tangent today.  Patience!!!

When I finally made it home I realized, there is something to be learned from the “white noise”, besides being patient.  There is something to be learned when we have “white noise” in our lives, on the radio, or the television or our cell phones when we have bad reception.  Distractions, media, the news, music, relationships. See, we get frustrated when we hear the white noise on the radio because we want to hear more noise!  I feel as though this can relate to our lives as Catholics as well.


Continue reading at Robert's blog  Love is Calling.

Jesus, teach me to pray

By Monica McConkey

Woman Kneeling at Prie-Dieu by Alexandre Bida
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Jesus, I want to know Your Truth AND live it. Jesus, I'm so easily distracted, so easily jostled, startled, untethered. Jesus, I worry about so many things.

Jesus, I want to pray. I want my words to be deliberate and heart-felt. I want to say what my heart feels and listen intently and hear Your Words to me in my heart, with no doubt, no second guessing. I want to be focused and consumed by You and undistracted.

I want to know You, bathe in Your Love, be directed by Your Priorities and I want to receive Your Love and Your intentions for me, correctly, fully, purely.

I want to brim over with the fire of your Love, uncontained, unfettered, unlimited, unconstrained so that I can only reflect Your Love, enthusiastically and untarnished by human limitations.

I want to see and think clearly, without muddying Your message to me, and to those around me.

I want to use the creative gifts You have given me to serve You and draw closer to You and to lead others to pursue You as You desire. I want to fulfil my vocation to the best of my abilities, recognizing but not giving in to my failings, offering up the little chores, the monotony and the little annoyances, frustrations and worries, surrendering my will and my lack of control, my pride for Your Greater Glory.

I want to pray. I want to express the yearning of my heart, to remain undistracted but focused on You. I want to connect with You, feeling Your unconditional Love, a love that is impossible for humans, only possible for God, loving me as if I was the only human, loving me incessantly despite my faults and failings, loving me without hesitation or requirements, expectations or conditions. Loving me because You have made me worthy through Your Suffering, for me, when no one except You could have even known I would exist.

Jesus, I don't want to get distracted by the meaningless details. I don't want to be preoccupied with menial concerns.



Continue reading at Monica's blog I blog Jesus.

Jesus and the jar of pickles--distractions at prayer

By Amanda Rose

Washing of the Feet (artist unknown; photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

I admit it. I am not a "morning person." Morning prayer times were not fruitful for me for many years. By "not fruitful," I mean that I would fall asleep whenever I attempted mental prayer in the morning. Even if I was sitting in an uncomfortable pew after morning Mass and wanted to stay for a bit with the Lord, my head would nod and I would startle awake, only to nod off again. I could pray in the afternoon, or late at night and stay awake, but not in the mornings. I read and was told that it was preferable to have a morning prayer time, but I just couldn't stay awake through one!

Well, I have been quite pleased with myself for faithfully praying Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours the past months – and staying awake. Maybe it's because I pray the Liturgy of the Hours from my phone using the Laudate App and electronics really do keep us awake? Or maybe it's just - cough, cough – middle age? Whatever the grace, I was doing so well that my spiritual director suggested I add the daily Mass readings to my morning prayer time, and that was a nice thought - a little time to meditate on the scriptures before starting the day.  

Maybe I shouldn't have been quite so pleased with myself and my success. After all, Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." I was feeling a little proud, kind of full of myself. Should have known better and remembered - it's all a gift, not me at all, whether I am awake or asleep, it's a gift from God. But I forgot and this week in my exuberance I added in a little something extra in the morning instead of waiting til later in the day. I read the verse of Jesus washing the feet of the disciple, meditating on it and praying for the grace of humble servitude.


Read the rest at Amanda's blog Little Steps Along the Way.

Drive-thru religion

by Lara

The Seven Works of Charity by Master of Alkmaar (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

I think I hit rock bottom last week, but really, who can remember?  It seems more often than would be possible for someone without a dementia diagnosis, I forget things.

Actually, it’s more that I am distracted than forgetful.

I can’t always remember if I washed my face in the shower and fear that I am often repeating this task. Or, I inadvertently put shower gel instead of face wash on my Clarisonic which results in a vibrating, floral-scented, foamy mess.

The week before, when I was cutting Brussels sprouts off its stalk I was half way finished before I realized that I had thrown the tiny cabbage-like balls into the trash can instead of the bowl that conspicuously sat on the counter.  I also opened a box of granola bars to throw into our snack bin and tossed them in the trash instead.

Frustrating, but relatively harmless, I spend a lot of time digging things out of the trash and re-washing body parts.  But sometimes the consequences are a little less benign– like when I accidently donated my husband’s suits to charity instead of taking them to the drycleaner.  That was costly.

My real wake-up call came the other day when I went through the Wendy’s drive-thru and was corrected by the cashier because apparently I was repeating myself.  “Ma’am, you already said you wanted an unsweet tea to go with your #1,” she reprimanded.  Geez, cut me some slack I thought.  I stammered along with the rest of my order and then fearing I had repeated something else, I fully disclosed that I couldn’t remember anything and wanted an unsweet tea.

I am terribly distracted much of the time.  And I worry that as I age my husband will not be able to tell what is merely my normal distracted-ness and what is really dementia.

We are all told to live in the moment, but which one?  I know I am not the only one doing a minimum of three different things at any given moment.  And often those three things don’t have much to do with God as they should.


Read the rest at Lara's blog  Mercy Me! I've got work to do!