quantity over quality

Hosea 11:1-9; psalm 80 Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved; Matthew 10:7-15

Prayer is a fascniating, mysterious and often elusive reality in our life. We all want to pray, in fact most of us would agree we should and would like to pray more often.

But the business of life or just our own laziness and attitude toward prayer interferes with praying itself.

We often have the misguided notion that prayer needs to be in a particular place for a fixed amount of time and should leave us with a certain feeling of peace and joy and wrapped in God's sweet embrace.

However, prayer simply put is time spent with God. Time spent with our minds and hearts lifted upward.

When it comes to prayer it is quanity not quality that is important.

We can never judge the quality of our prayer, God alone can judge that fully. But we can make time for God, and make time often throughout our day.

If we Give God time, he will do the rest. This is how we grow in holiness. A little time throughout the day one day at a time.

As St. Augustine suggest, we should have little moments of prayer througout the day, like hurling javelins upward into the heavens that pierce the skies and allows grace to fall down.

When it comes to prayer we should imagine opening a window in our lives and allowing the breath of God to come in and stay awhile, a little freshness to awaken us as we move through the day. A little freshness that keeps our minds and hearts attentive to that which matters most: love of God and love of neighbor.

We should do this often, as St. Paul says, "pray always without ceasing."

Maybe it is spending a minute with a verse from the gospels. Maybe saying a decade of the rosary at different periods of the day. Maybe stopping in at the local church and have a few moments with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament on the way home. Even changing our routine to make this happen is prayer. Maybe a few moments of silence in the car with the radio tuned out and the noise shut off so that God can be tuned in. Of course we should not forget about blessings before meals. Or taking a few moments before we sleep to think about the blessings and challenges we recieved from God that have forced us to think or see differently. Or simply just making the sign of the cross randomly throughout the day or at every hour of the day invoking the blessing of the Trinity to come and fill us.

Little windows opened through out the day, this is what prayer is.
Quantity over quality and this is how we learn to grow in love and learn to walk in his ways. As the psalmist tells us, "open to me the gates of holiness." These gates are windows throughout the day.

Just a few words from St. Ambrose as you continue your journey today.

"Let you door stand open to recieve him, unlock your soul to him, offer him a welcome in your mind, and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the verlasting light that shines on every man. This true light shines on all, but if anyone closes his window he will deprive himself of eternal light. If you shut the door of your mind, you shut out Christ..."

Today open a window, keep the door ajar and let the light of Christ come in.