NAS: How do you pray at home?

How do you pray at home? Do you have a special place in your house? How do you make that area special? Comfy chair? Prayer cards? What suggestions do you have to make a home altar? If you don’t do this, in what ways can you begin?

~

Does my bed count?

Okay, maybe that’s weird to post a picture of my bed. But isn’t it comfy looking?! The blanket is from my grandma. Moving on to the point:

Most days I say a rosary before bed. Or as I fall asleep. Hence, the picture. The things on the wall are prayers too. One of them is the Litany of Humility which I still haven’t said because it’s kind of terrifying on some level. And rather intense. So it’s staying put as a reminder to actually say it one day. I’d love to add a sort of examination of conscience to my wall for the end of each day!

When I wake up, I try to remember to say a morning offering. Then I go to workout (most of the time, but it’s getting harder with the cold) and try to remember to say the LIFE Runners creed before starting. When I get back, I try to remember to read the daily readings (usually from Blessed is She or Word Among Us).

Two days a week I have a half hour of adoration, but I’m usually there for about an hour each time because of how it fits into my schedule. Adoration isn’t something I remember doing before college, so it’s been nice the last couple years here! After learning more about prayer, I force myself to not bring a book to adoration and just be with Jesus. It’s pretty awesome. I also usually go to a holy hour on Saturdays. Sometimes I journal during part of that time. And sometimes I read the “I Thirst for You” meditation. But mostly I kneel or sit there and try to not think of my to-do list . . . . which can be hard. Seriously. Does anyone else have that problem? I don’t have a list to write things down, so I just focus on praying and then at the end I realize how easy it is to chill out and just be there when you try.

Other than that, I write down prayer intentions throughout the week and pray specifically for them. I started doing this last year, but this year I started asking for intentions on social media after reading the suggestion. It felt kind of weird at first, but I love it so much to be able to pray for people’s specific needs! Also included in my intentions are random requests and situations I see.

I try to offer up a lot of stuff for other people, and I have found that to be extremely powerful to me. Does it count as a type of prayer? I don’t know. But praying for the souls in purgatory or asking God to use something I’m going through to help someone else is something I love so much.

For almost 10 years, I’ve kept a journal off an on. In the beginning it was mostly the boring details of what happened everyday, but now it’s more prayers and thinking about stuff. Writing helps me figure things out, so that’s another way I pray. Sometimes from the beginning to the end of something, I can already see a situation more clearly. Yay!

In my dorm room I have this shelf:

I don’t kneel there to pray or anything (though I have heard about having altars in your home which sounds cool!). There’s more on the wall too. It’s just a nice reminder. We also did this to our wall (word of Our Lady of Guadalupe) which keeps a nice atmosphere as well:

Prayer is talking with God, and even though I don’t do a whole lot of organized prayer, it’s an important part of my everyday life. At the beginning of this school year we were challenged to give 30 minutes of undivided time to prayer each day, and I want to get better about that. It doesn’t sound that hard, but it has been! Like exercising which keeps our physical muscles in shape, prayer keeps our spiritual muscles in shape. And I need to start pumping more serious spiritual iron.

Do you have any suggestions for how to make those 30 minutes a habit? Do you pray at specific times of the day? How do you integrate prayer into your life?

To Life,

To Life,

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