The Prayer Thing

 This week's post comes from Elyse Keeffer. Elyse is a 1st year Religious Studies Major from Galena, IL.

As busy college students, our lives are often full of frantic running from class to class, meeting to meeting, and assignment to assignment. When we aren’t working to keep up with the pre-scheduled obligations of the day, there’s always something running through our minds. Upcoming deadlines, relationship struggles, social media posts, news updates, that random song from 2012 that your brain won’t stop playing from somewhere in the deepest depths of your mind, you name it. But when was the last time you let yourself stop running and opened your heart to silence? When was the last time you surrendered part of your day to God and only to God? When was the last time you let yourself be wrapped in His presence—in the love and peace that only He can provide? Maybe you’ve never experienced any of this before, or maybe you do it every day! Either way, making time for God can be a difficult task in the craziness of life, but the rewards go far beyond the price of our surrender and small “yes” to God.

The first step to praying is scheduling time for it. Sometimes the first step is to find just a few free minutes of your day and to work on spending more time in prayer from there. Do you have a period between classes that is too short to start homework but too long to go right to your next class? BAM! PRAYER TIME! Could you take 15 minutes of your usual lunch or dinner break to spend some time with God? KAPOW! PRAYER TIME! Need a homework break to refocus your thoughts? BADDA BING BADDA BOOM! PRAYER TIME! You don’t need to dedicate hours at a time to prayer for growing your relationship with God. Turning to Him for strength and comfort throughout the day is a great way to spend more time in prayer, even if it is a few minutes at a time.

However, if you do want to go hardcore prayer ninja and find longer periods of time to spend with God, it can be helpful to have someone or something to hold you accountable. Consider asking a friend to be your prayer partner, setting prayer goals for the week, or putting aside specific time in your day for prayer just like you would for going to class. Then, hold yourself to it and ask God to help you! Something that has been helpful in my own search for finding time for God has been praying for surrender: “God, I want to give this time to be with You. Help me to accomplish what I need to do in order to surrender myself in this time to You and only to You.”

Once you’ve found the time for it, it is important to find a way of praying that works for you. Simply sitting in the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle or at adoration can be a great starting point. Prayer is also a time to open your heart to have a conversation with God. Tell Him what’s heavy on your heart and the things that fill you with joy, tell Him about your day, or tell Him whatever you need to tell Him. This is your time with God, and He is listening. Just remember that conversations go two ways, so it is important to listen to God too. Pay attention to what is on your heart and mind, and open your heart to receive whatever God wants to give you. If you’re having a hard time focusing or sitting in the silence, it’s okay! Some other active prayer ideas include journaling, reading the Bible, praying the rosary, reading about the saints, or trying out Lectio Divina or Ignatian Meditation. Don’t be afraid to try out new things to find how you best communicate with God. Also, if you really can’t focus because you feel distracted by something, turn your distractions into prayers! Surrender them to God and let Him have everything on your heart.

At this point you may be thinking, this prayer thing sounds fabulous, but why should I do it? To be honest, there’s not one specific reason to pray or a thing that you are guaranteed to get out of praying. Rather, you should pray because God seeks you. He seeks your heart, and He wants to fill you with His love and peace in the way that you need it most. He wants your joys and your sorrows, your

talents and your faults. He is waiting for you to simply open your heart to Him; to receive Him and to be received by Him. So, the next time you are planning out your busy day, consider scheduling in some quiet time with God. He’s waiting to embrace you with loving and open arms.

God Bless,

Elyse Keeffer