I’ve taken this month of January to try and understand where I’m at in my prayer journey. I noticed that praying is hard. It not something that is easy. The repetition of it can help make it a routine, but is there meaning behind it. I’ve noticed in my daily meditations that I might not have been truly focusing on listening to daily scripture and praying to understand what is being talked about in the pursuit to find enlightenment and inspiration to live my life by. Fr. Mark-Mary’s Rosary in a year podcast has also helped me come to this conclusion and to try to pray with the Lord in mind. This is how I will try to move forward with my prayer journey.

This stemmed from noticing how people conducted prayer before, during, and after mass. Not sure how many people have noticed those around them and try to understand what goes through the thoughts and prayers of other people. I wouldn’t normally recommend noticing other people’s habits because that can spiral yourself in a different direction by potentially judging others. From this though I was able to understand that my prayer life is mine alone and our worship is shared even in different forms. The biggest thing I noticed is if someone chooses to kneel and pray before or after the mass that’s how they prepare or conclude their worship. I’m someone who has never really knelt before mass and it became interesting to notice other who do. I have not talked to anyone yet about this due to my introversion, but do hope I can ask someone what their take on it is. My thought is the mass itself is a type of prayer and anything that I would have come up or ask about to the Lord would be done during this time of worship with my fellow parishioners where we all are looking towards Him. I’ve also noticed those who just seem to follow others by kneeling, and only noticed this when after kneeling someone spent the time looking around the church. I’ve also definitely have had trouble with getting distracted when I should be focusing on my prayer over the surroundings or other thoughts. I’ve been striving myself to focus less on my surrounding while at mass and giving my focus to the Lord by paying attention to details of the mass or looking for Him in the Cross behind the alter. Before mass I’ve been spending my time to read through the Church’s paper to see what’s going on with the community and the biggest thing is to pre-read the readings for the mass and through the Gospel mediation and Question of the week that they provide. At the end of the day, let’s try our best to pray everyday and look for the Lord. We all have our struggles and it can be hard at times, but He will lead us to our salvation.