In this first week of the new year may I suggest that as a resolution we all promise to either continue, or start, praying EVERY DAY!  Daily prayer is essential to live as a faithful disciple of Jesus.  We need to be in communion and in communication with our Lord.  Prayer can never take a back seat in our life.  Here are some suggestions and advice to start praying every day:

1. Schedule your day around prayer.  Too often, at least for myself, I look at my calendar for the week and I try to find time to pray among the other appointments and events I already have scheduled.  That’s not keeping prayer at the forefront of my day.  Now I try (and I don’t always succeed) to schedule my prayer time first and then put my appointments around my prayer time.  This means I have to pray at a certain time every day.  Not sure when you can do this every day?  PRAY ABOUT IT!  Go to Jesus and say, “Lord, I’m a very busy spouse/parents/teacher/officer/priest/etc and I’m not sure when I can pray.  Help me see a time of day to pray.”  Jesus will answer you.

2. Start small and work your way up.  You may not be able to pray for a full hour or half hour every day and THAT’S OK!  If you can commit yourself to five minutes of prayer each day then start there at five minutes.  The most important thing is that you pray and that you pray for the amount of time you set aside.  The evil one will tempt you to stop praying.  If you set aside five minutes to pray, I guarantee at minute 3 you will be bored and feel like God isn’t there…HE IS THERE!  The evil one doesn’t want you to pray and will do whatever he can to make you stop praying.  Give God the whole five minutes you promised (or however long you decided on).  In fact, if you feel tempted to end prayer early…stay an extra minute just to upset the devil.

3. Don’t worry about what to say.  If you are afraid to pray because you don’t have the “right words,” then go to the app store or find any prayer book and use those prayers.  You don’t have to be creative when it comes to prayer.  Stick to the basics!  An Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be are all great prayers.  Go through a decade of the rosary or even read the scriptures!  If you want to start reading a Gospel (I HIGHLY recommend this) start with the Gospel of Mark.  Mark is short, sweet, simple, and reads really well as a narrative.  

These are just a couple simple suggestions to help you start praying every day.  Start now!  It doesn’t matter that it’s a weekday or past January 1…start today!  Pray every day!  Know that I am praying for you.