Your Prayer Schedule?

[melporcristo]

JMJT

For a few years now, I have been apart of a movement in the Church. I care not to mention that movement because I love it a great deal but I also cannot attach myself with the spirituality of that movement. Now that I am going a different direction in regards to spirituality, I feel like I am back to the drawing board when it comes to what specific morning prayer & night prayer I do - I don't know which ones to do now that I can't identify with the morning & night prayers set from the movement.

Someone answered this question (unintentionally ) in another thread, but I wanted to know what you're prayer schedule is like now that you are discerning the religious life and especially for those who know where they are called to pursue and what they do in the meantime while they wait for entrance dates for their own morning & night prayer. Do you use the morning & night prayers that your order of choice does? or Do you follow a different morning & night prayer?

[FSM Sister]

Just use the official prayer of the church: the Liturgy of the Hours approved for use in your country. I know of several versions of the English text (Christian Prayer, Liturgy of the Hours, Mundelein Psalter, Book of Divine Worship (for Anglican Use) and then there are the several versions approved for use in the UK. If you have access to a good Catholic book store, you can compare the texts and see which one would best suit you.

[TeresaBenedicta]

I try to keep my prayer schedule as consistent as possible, but the nature of university life makes it a little bit difficult. I try do at least 2 of the 3 major hours within the LOTH. So, some days it might be both Morning and Evening prayer. Others it might be Morning and Night prayer. Evening and Night prayer. And on good days I get all three in.

Besides the LOTH, I also make a holy hour each day. When I do it usually varies, though I'm hoping to stick to a consistent time this semester.

I almost always have a book for spiritual reading, but I don't necessarily take time for it each. And a few days a week I try to do a rosary.

I'd really like to make a better plan and commitment for this semester.

[OraProMe]

I haven't kept a schedule for a while but mine used to be

Offering the day to God when I woke up
Angelus before breakfast
Angelus at noon if possible. If I was at school I'd usually ask to go to the bathroom and recite it in the school garden.
Stop by parish church on walk home from school for mental prayer
Angelus after dinner
Decade of the rosary before bed

If I could fit spiritual reading, Mass or a visit to the Blessed Sacrament in I'd do that too.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='melporcristo' date='02 January 2010 - 05:36 PM' timestamp='1262414206' post='2028475']
JMJT

For a few years now, I have been apart of a movement in the Church. I care not to mention that movement because I love it a great deal but I also cannot attach myself with the spirituality of that movement. Now that I am going a different direction in regards to spirituality, I feel like I am back to the drawing board when it comes to what specific morning prayer & night prayer I do - I don't know which ones to do now that I can't identify with the morning & night prayers set from the movement.

Someone answered this question (unintentionally ) in another thread, but I wanted to know what you're prayer schedule is like now that you are discerning the religious life and especially for those who know where they are called to pursue and what they do in the meantime while they wait for entrance dates for their own morning & night prayer. Do you use the morning & night prayers that your order of choice does? or Do you follow a different morning & night prayer?
[/quote]

Of course it is going to depend on what your other daily activities and responsibilities are that determine what your prayer schedule can be. I don't think it matters which prayers you use, as long as you are consistent in keeping your schedule as closely as possible. As someone else posted, there are many prayer books to choose from for Morning and Evening Prayer (Lauds and Vespers) and some of them even have Night Prayer (Compline) as well. Since you have already been praying regularly, it seems to be just a matter of choosing a prayer book that you can afford and can navigate.

I still use the UK breviary that I have had for the past three years, and I love it, but I am thinking about changing to the Baronius Press Latin/English one when they have released it, and if I have enough money at the time. Right now I attend the EF Mass but use the OF breviary, so sometimes the feast days of the Lord or the Proper of Saints are on different days, and this just makes things a little more difficult for me as I have to choose which one I am going to use. I pretty much keep to the Carmelite prayer schedule, but this means that I pray some of the hours on the tram or train! I also pray the Rosary every day, but do this on public transport as well since I think it is a great prayer witness and I can offer it up for everyone travelling on the same tram or train.

Regularity is the key. Father Hardon talks about that here... scroll down to the sections of Daily Order and Personal Orderliness...

http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Religious_Life/Religious_Life_047.htm

[toservelove]

JMJT, when I was discerning I used the Magnificat magazine. I was a teacher at the time, and my days were pretty hectic. The Magnificat is sort of a shortened version of LOTH. I also used my iPod. The Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Night Prayer (by Martin Doman)and sometimes I used Pray as You Go, which is put out by a Jesuit group; good music, Scripture readings, times of silence and questions for reflection--very well done and only about 15 minutes or so, which was important for me, since I sometimes worked 10-15 hour days. Probably what was most important to me was daily Mass and time before the Blessed Sacrament. I had a few different routes I took to work, and I knew every Catholic church on the route. Each one I passed, I would make a spiritual communion, as well as making spiritual communions throughout the day.

I guess what I'm saying is, find what works best for you and your schedule. If any of the suggestions on Phatmass help, that's great, but ultimately it has to fit YOU the person, and not a particular group. God will lead you to the group that fits your spirituality.

God bless you in your search. I will remember you today during my rosary.

[tnavarro61]

[quote name='toservelove' date='02 January 2010 - 10:59 PM' timestamp='1262440750' post='2028562']
JMJT, when I was discerning I used the Magnificat magazine. I was a teacher at the time, and my days were pretty hectic. The Magnificat is sort of a shortened version of LOTH. I also used my iPod. The Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Night Prayer (by Martin Doman)and sometimes I used Pray as You Go, which is put out by a Jesuit group; good music, Scripture readings, times of silence and questions for reflection--very well done and only about 15 minutes or so, which was important for me, since I sometimes worked 10-15 hour days. Probably what was most important to me was daily Mass and time before the Blessed Sacrament. I had a few different routes I took to work, and I knew every Catholic church on the route. Each one I passed, I would make a spiritual communion, as well as making spiritual communions throughout the day.

I guess what I'm saying is, find what works best for you and your schedule. If any of the suggestions on Phatmass help, that's great, but ultimately it has to fit YOU the person, and not a particular group. God will lead you to the group that fits your spirituality.

God bless you in your search. I will remember you today during my rosary.
[/quote]

thank you for mentioning "pray as you go" i discovered it through you and i feel that it would be very helpful. i am a college student and i have to travel almost 1 hour each day to go to university. i can put the pray as you prayers in my mp3 and listen to it while inside the bus. :-)

i pray the Christian Prayer (i think the short version of LOTH) but i don't during school time as i go to school very early and go back home very late in the evening, but i still pray personal prayers (sometimes 30minutes before i go to school) and write all my prayers in a prayer journal. during saturdays and sundays i try to pray the morning, evening and night prayers. during vacations, i try to pray the CP everyday.

[humbleheart]

I pray for one hour in the morning, one hour in the evening, and then have Compline just before I go to sleep.

How I pray during the morning and evening hours does vary. I always conclude the morning hour by reading the Gospel for the day, and I begin my evening prayer time with the rosary. Apart from that I don't have a pattern. Usually I just sit quietly.

[laetitia crucis]

As ironic as this sounds, after I left my former community I found having a daily prayer schedule [i]really [/i]difficult for me. We prayed Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer (from the U.S. LOTH) in community every day. Now as a lay person without a community to pray with, it seems almost as if I've never learned to pray the LOTH! I guess that's one way I know I could never make it as a hermit!

I remember when I was discerning the first time around, one sister once told me something along the lines of, "I'm a weak person -- I [i]need [/i]communal prayer!" Now I know exactly what she means!

Anyhooo. To answer your question, I suppose the first thing I would say is, "Do you have a spiritual director?" (I ask this because I think he may be the best person to help you with your prayer life, given his training and the grace of that calling.)

After leaving my former community I still tried to pray all that we had prayed each day (LOTH, Rosary, Angelus, etc.), but found myself falling short every day, like I was just "out of whack" so to say. During my first meeting my with SD, he had said, "This is a very natural thing to go through after having left a very structured communal prayer life -- you're in a new environment and have a different way of life now. It's going to take time to adjust. I would recommend that you go back to the basics. Start simply." So to say the least, he has "assigned" for my daily prayer: the Rosary, and Compline. Simple. However, with time I will be working back up to adding in the LOTH. I'm just taking baby-steps, I suppose. It's a good thing.

I hope that helps somewhat.

Hmmm... ... have you ever tried praying any of the LOTH from [url="http://www.universalis.com/index.htm"]Universalis[/url]? I don't believe it's connected to any movement or Order within the Church. Just a standard LOTH to use.

As for preparing my prayer life for the Order I will (God willing!) enter -- the Sisters I'm hoping to join use different psalm tones than the ones I'm familiar with, so this makes it somewhat harder for me. If I had those psalm tones...wow, I'd totally be chanting as much as I could! I love chanting the LOTH! For now, I'm trying to get in chanting Solemnities and Sundays (with the psalm tones I know). I probably lack a lot of discipline, but I find that if I chant the Hours, it's just that much easier for me.

Maybe I'll see if I can get those psalm tones somehow...

[Laudate_Dominum]

This would rock:

02:00 - Matins
05:30 - Lauds
06:00 - 15 decade rosary, mental prayer and Prime
08:00 - Daily Mass
09:00 - Thanksgiving, meditation, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Terce
10:00 - First Eucharistic holy hour
11:00 - Spiritual reading followed by Sext and mental prayer
14:00 - Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Angelus, Stations of the Cross and None
17:00 - Second holy hour
18:00 - Vespers
19:00 - Third holy hour
22:00 - Compline

[Lil Red]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='02 January 2010 - 09:35 AM' timestamp='1262450155' post='2028585']
I remember when I was discerning the first time around, one sister once told me something along the lines of, "I'm a weak person -- I [i]need [/i]communal prayer!" Now I know exactly what she means!
[/quote]+JMJ+
i need communal prayer too, but since i've started asking my patron saints to pray with me, even if i am praying by myself, i never am praying by myself.

i try to remember a morning offering before i get out of bed, but i forget a lot

i pray Office of Readings, then consecration prayers, then read and reflect on the Gospel reading of the day, then Morning Prayer.

afternoon, i try to do Divine Mercy chaplet (forgetting a lot of times).

i usually do a rosary during the day (usually when i'm driving).

in the evening, i do evening prayer, and at bedtime, i do night prayer.

i'm trying to add in monthly devotions, like first friday devotions and first sunday divine mercy devotions.

i'm not perfect by any means at any of this, and i forget a lot of times with the rosary and Divine Mercy. and a lot of this is a result of building up to this point.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='02 January 2010 - 12:17 PM' timestamp='1262459862' post='2028666']
This would rock:

02:00 - Matins
05:30 - Lauds
06:00 - 15 decade rosary, mental prayer and Prime
08:00 - Daily Mass
09:00 - Thanksgiving, meditation, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Terce
10:00 - First Eucharistic holy hour
11:00 - Spiritual reading followed by Sext and mental prayer
14:00 - Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Angelus, Stations of the Cross and None
17:00 - Second holy hour
18:00 - Vespers
19:00 - Third holy hour
22:00 - Compline
[/quote]
+JMJ+
yeah, that would rock. i wish i had time for 3 holy hours.

[brightsadness]

Morning prayer and Scriptures for the day before work
Vespers and compline before bed.
An hour of prayer and spiritual reading when I can fit it in...usually evenings.

Not ideal but my work schedule tends to be stretchy.

[melporcristo]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='02 January 2010 - 12:17 PM' timestamp='1262459862' post='2028666']
This would rock:

02:00 - Matins
05:30 - Lauds
06:00 - 15 decade rosary, mental prayer and Prime
08:00 - Daily Mass
09:00 - Thanksgiving, meditation, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Terce
10:00 - First Eucharistic holy hour
11:00 - Spiritual reading followed by Sext and mental prayer
14:00 - Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Angelus, Stations of the Cross and None
17:00 - Second holy hour
18:00 - Vespers
19:00 - Third holy hour
22:00 - Compline
[/quote]

I wish ...

toservelove- Thank you for your prayers!! I will pray for you too.

I do agree we all have our own schedule that fits us according to our lifestyles. Even each religious order have their own schedule of prayers.

As for the question on if I have a spiritual director - I did. It was a lay person but before I get beef about that, let me give you an idea on why. First, I was apart of a lay movement. Because the movement requires members to have a guide and highly prefers a priest or consecrated, that would have been the case. But the movement I was apart of isn't accepted in my diocese (another story...) so we had permission to have lay people who go through discernment and study. Plus, priests in this area are so busy these days, sadly. So long story short (or short story long ) I felt I could no longer identify with the spirituality of the movement and started back again with the LOTH. I love LOTH - I would even chant them when I was alone in the chapel. Seeing how many of you recommend it, I feel even more at peace with continuing my LOTH.
[quote]Night Prayer (by Martin Doman)and sometimes I used Pray as You Go[/quote] What is the Night Prayer by Martin Doman?? He's amazing! I know his younger brother from Steubenville when I was there! Also, the Pray As You Go sounds great.

Edited January 3, 2010 by melporcristo

[holly.o]

I'm trying to make every moment a prayer. My mind gets distracted so easily, & I find at the end of a day at work, I've forgotten God throughout the day! Or at least, didn't acknowledge & love Him as I should...

So when I find myself starting to think about the future, past, or just daydream, I ask Jesus to be with me. In some ways, I think this distancing of ourselves from the present moment is an attempt - a subtle, subconscious one - to avoid some pain or fear or something else negative. When we admit that we are weak & ask Jesus to be with us, to fill whatever it is that we're lacking & trying to fill with worry or mindlessnes, we open ourselves to make that moment one of deep prayer. *

To be aware of what you're doing, no matter how small, & to do it for love of God - that's a constant prayer we can all give, one He's very pleased with.

As for a set schedule - it varies. Always the Rosary.



(*this is somewhat adapted from a book I'm reading)