Whether you are aware if it or not, every day, you undoubtably have some sort of routine in your life. You wake up, exercise, read the newspaper, get kids sent off to school, etc. You have breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the day. You go to work, power up your computer while grabbing a mug of coffee. Sometimes we don’t even realize the routines we have in our lives. I was not aware of one of my routines until my cat, Paul, pointed it out to me. His own routine involves waiting patiently for me by the door to the garage when I get home from work. I pick him up for some snuggles, and then he jumps down and leads the way to the bathroom...
 
So this begs the question, where is prayer in your daily routine? While prayer itself should never be a “routine” in the sense that it becomes mundane without our heart involved, we do need to build it into our day. However, if we add it to the “I’ll get to it later” list, it will surely be one of the first things to go.
 
Many Catholic speakers have compared forgetting daily prayer to forgetting to eat. Eating seems so essential we wouldn’t dream of just “forgetting” about it. However, far more essential than food for the body is food for the soul. If you miss a meal, you feel the effects, such as the common new term “hangry.” You feel hungry, work production and motivation can go down, and your emotions become less stable. Just like we have signs to direct us to feed our bodies, we also have these same signs to care for our souls.
 
If I don’t pray during the day, I feel the effects immediately. Although they may not seem as noticeable as missing a meal, they are there. We can grow used to these side effects if we are in a constant state of living our day without God, but they are still there whether we are entuned to them or not. If I don’t put prayer first in the morning, it can seem like my whole day is off. I am less patient and less forgiving, more stressed, and less equipped to handle it. I can’t survive without prayer any more than I can survive without water, and neither can you.
 
When we live without prayer, we grow cold to the needs of this world. Christian and non-Christian alike no longer think about things like immorality, relativism, and evangelizing to care for the soul of others. We slowly become “dehydrated” to prayer even if we don’t recognize the symptoms.
 
I always used to make the excuse that “I don’t have time for prayer.” Maybe some of you feel the same way. After all, we live in a fast-paced world where it seems we have little time to spare even for ourselves. But God always provides. I discovered this one morning when I had so much housework, cleaning, and catching up to do that I felt overwhelmed, but I also felt God calling me to Him in adoration. I wanted to say no, but I went anyway. When I returned home, not only was I filled with joy doing some of my least favorite tasks, but I also finished way faster than I thought possible. I didn’t lose time from the hour I spent in prayer, instead it seemed I had gained it. It finally made sense to me when St. Francis de Sales said, “Every one of us needs half an hour of prayer a day, except when we are busy – then we need an hour.”
 
You don’t need to start praying an hour every day, but just ten minutes. Build it into your schedule. Stop in the Chapel if able, before work, while out and about, even if just for a minute. Build this into your routine, because otherwise, you will not succeed. When should you pray? When you will. Many scholars will tell you to pray first thing in the morning and before bed. While this is certainly true, I find it is better for me to pray when I actually WILL and not when I “should.”
 
Beginning to pray is the most important step no matter when that is. Eventually, we should all strive for the goal to pray without thinking about it, talking to God all throughout the day. But even then, we NEED time scheduled to rest with God, listen, and refresh. Rehydrate and feed your soul. Don’t start tomorrow, as the famous musical Annie says, “Tomorrow is always a day away.” Start today. God doesn’t care how you begin to pray. He just can’t wait to sit with you and love you. So, what are you waiting for? God Himself is waiting to give you His undivided attention. Hopefully, with time we will give it to Him too, but for now, just come. Come without fear. No judgement awaits you. Only love.