Simplicity in Prayer

Last week and this week, my family has been hit hard with fevers and coughs.  My prayer time routine is out of sync.  It's hard to pray early in the morning when I've been up several times a night helping a sick child or comforting one with a bad dream.  These sleepless nights remind me of when my three middle girls were babies.  My oldest was just two years old. Life was filled with hour and a half feedings followed by an hour and a half of time to clean up, diapering, preparing for the next meal and taking care of my two year old's needs.  Prayer time seemed so scarce, at least prayer time in the traditional sense.  It was a hard adjustment for me. 

 

One evening, I began to read Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade.  It changed the way I viewed my prayer time in the midst of raising a family.  I was being called to practice "the sacrament of the present moment."  I was to be in the here and now with my toddler and babies and offer it as prayer.  So every diaper I changed became a prayer.  Every middle of the night feeding became a prayer.  Every wake up call because of bad dreams or a fever became a prayer.  It was something easy to do and I felt so much more connected to God.  As the girls got older and I was able to get in the traditional times of prayer much easier, I forgot the "sacrament of the present moment."   My eyes didn't see God in everything that was around me.

 

These last two weeks have reminded me of those early days of motherhood.  My two year old is now eleven years old.  My middled three are nine years old. They now have a three year old sister.  I've felt the call again to really be in the here and now with my family and with God. I'm being shown how I am to become rooted in prayer throughout the day by making my life a prayer.     

 

 

Come, all you simple souls those without piety, grand talents, or lessons learned.

Come, all you who understand nothing of spiritual terms, who are filled with amazement at the eloquence of the learned.

Come, and I will teach you the secret, unreachable by those brilliant scholars-the secret of perfection.

You will find this perfection within you, above you, below you, with every step you take.

Then you will be united with God, hand in hand you will walk.

Come, not to study the map of spiritual terrain, but to possess it for yourself; To walk about in it without fear of going astray.

Why learn the theory of Divine Grace, and what it has been doing throughout the ages, when you can become and be the very instrument of its operation?

Come, not to discuss the words of others, but to listen…For in the sacredness of every moment
Divine Grace is telling you alone all that is required.

 

-Jean-Pierre de Caussade