The Importance of a Solid
Prayer Life

Why all this talk about your prayer life on a website about catholic homeschooling resources? Well, if you are going to be able to homeschool and keep up with all of the other things that you have to do, then you will need to have a pretty strong prayer life.

We can benefit so much from spending time in prayer. Our God cannot be outdone in generosity, so the more time you give Him in prayer, the more He will give back to you in grace and in many other ways. I have found that the more faithful that I am to my prayer routine, the more able I am to get everything done that I need to get done. As Father Pablo Straub once said, "You need to waste time to make time". What he was referring to by wasting time was the worldly viewpoint that we are wasting time by praying and by going to daily mass, etc. If we agree to "waste" time, we are sure to gain time through the generosity of God.

The most important thing we can do is to begin our day with prayer. We should rise promptly and begin with our morning offering so that we consecrate the entire day to the Lord. We might also spend our morning prayer time meditating on a Scripture passage or on a section of a good spiritual book we are reading, like In Conversation With God 7 volume set, Life Of Christ or Imitation of Christ.

We should then really make a concerted effort to get to daily Mass. That might seem like quite an undertaking to you. If it does, start slowly by going a few days a week. Once you begin to go to Mass more often, you will realize how much it means to your day. You will feel the graces that it brings to your life. You will become hooked!

There are many other things we can do to add prayer to our life. Here is a list of some things that can help you to be more in tune with God and thus be better able to do His will.

A solid prayer life really is the foundation of a solid catholic homeschool. You will benefit from it and so will those around you. When things seem as if they are getting out of hand and you want to scream, retreat for a few moments into prayer. It will really calm you down and get you back on track.

Just to caution you - if you don't have much of a prayer life already, do not add so many things to your day that you become overwhelmed and give up. Start slow. Try to add a few things at a time and then when you are comfortable with those, add some more.

Also, don't just make it personal prayer - include the whole family! The family rosary as well as doing things like going to mass or adoration together really have a positive impact on your family. I know it might not seem like it if you have a lot of little kids and all you are doing is fighting with them to sit still or be quiet, but trust me, the fruits are there; it just may take you awhile to see them!

We have been praying the family rosary for a number of years now and, since our youngest is now three, we are finally getting to the point where we can pray it in about 30 minutes with out stopping too many times! It has been a long road to get here, but it has been worth it.

So take a few minutes right now to evaluate your prayer life and think about things you might like to add to it to give it a boost. Once you have a routine you like, stick to it and guard your prayer time like a precious jewel. Don't let hardly anything get in the way of it. Do this and you will be amazed at the inflow of graces.

God Bless!