Too busy to pray? Here are some ideas on when to pray

Life can be hectic, especially when trying to balance work and family obligations. However, there is always time for us to pray.

Modern life can be busy, as everything moves at the speed of light, and often you get punished if you don’t organize your life in a way to keep up with the demands.

Raising a family can be especially hectic, as children need to keep up with homework and attend a variety of sports practices throughout the week.

This doesn’t even touch on the modern demands of employers, who increasingly want things “yesterday,” and are not happy when a project gets postponed.

With such busyness, it can feel like there is absolutely no time to pray during the day.

However, even the busiest person in the world can find time to pray.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes a similar bold statement in its section on prayer:

It is always possible to pray: The time of the Christian is that of the risen Christ who is with us always, no matter what tempests may arise. Our time is in the hands of God.
CCC 2743

The Catechism then goes on to quote St. John Chrysostom, who gives very specific recommendations on when to pray.

It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone, or seated in your shop, . . . whilebuying or selling, . . . or even while cooking.
St. John Chrysostom

Basically, none of us is exempt from praying. We may think that we are “too busy” to pray, but we are not.

It’s simply impossible to live 24 hours in a day in a constant state of activity. If we did that, we would die from exhaustion.

What we need to do instead is to admit to ourselves that we do have the time to pray and make a conscious effort to use our time wisely.

For example, maybe we have an hour commute to work, whether that is in the car, bus, or in the subway. We can use even a small portion of that time to pray.

Another example is how we all eat at some point during the day. We can use some of that time to pray silently to God.

A final example is the reality that we all sleep and determine when we go to bed and when we wake up. We could easily block out 15 minutes surrounding that time to sit and meditate on God’s love for us.

We all have time to pray, even when we say we don’t.