If you’re looking for a new way to pray, Catholic spirituality is simply brimming [overflowing!] with set prayers, specific patterns for prayer, and more.
There’s the Liturgy of the Hours, the first century practice of praying the Our Father three times a day (Didache, Chapter 8), the noon-time Angelus, the rosary and other prayer-rope forms of prayer, “station” or walking prayers, daily examinations of conscience, and more.
But how do we understand these examples of routine and structure within our own lives? Are they boring and dry? A weaker substitute for more extemporaneous forms of prayer? Can I rely on them too much?
For me, running is the best analogy for understanding the function of different styles of personal prayer. The race that I most often train for is the two-mile run. I run it aiming for a personal best about twice a year, and have done so for the past 13 years.
During that time, my training methods have varied greatly! Sometimes, it’s due to life’s circumstances, other times due to injury, and other times, just to see what a new training method is like. Sometimes my workouts are very specified and structured, i.e. doing a certain speed for a certain distance for a set time—much like the set prayers of our faith!
Other times, I just go run through our city, having some idea of how long I’m going to take, but not really looking at my watch, not thinking about my speed—just running. For me this is akin to my own personal, extemporaneous prayers. Yes, I set aside a general time and have some idea of how long I will spend, but beyond that it’s a blank slate.
A few weeks ago I was doing a speed workout on a track, some ¼ mile repeats. Now this is the type of workout that I only usually do in the months leading up to a 2-mile race. As I pushed out repetition after repetition, there was something very centering about it, as I thought about all of the different places and stages of life, I’d done this same workout in.
And I think this is what the repetitiveness of our set and more routine or structured prayer practices draws us toward. A realization that as we encounter a passage of Scripture prayed in certain years or seasons, or a prayer rhythm that we take up for Lent each year, or some spiritual reading that we do every couple of years, we learn about how God is working in our lives, as we are reminded of past times we’ve looked to God using the same method, the same technique. Rather than being boring because of the familiarity, a well-used structured prayer can create an opening for us to listen to God in a distinct way.
Just as a structured workout for a runner is preparation for a race, set prayers are also preparation for those moments when words fail us. When emotionally, physically, or spiritually we just can’t muster an extemporaneous word of prayer, the “training” of set prayers can then provide the language our heart seeks.
Much like in running, prayer routines need to be changed up if we’re to stretch ourselves and grow. We aim for cross-training, not specialization.
If my prayer life becomes all about extemporaneous, unscheduled prayer I should work some structure back in. And on the flip side, if my prayer life becomes reduced to repeating the same familiar lines over and over, it’s probably time for some growth.
We should also revisit our practices and routines on a regular basis to gain perspective on how our relationship with God has changed, how we have grown as disciples, and how God may be speaking to us in a slightly different way, through the same practice as compared to earlier in our lives.
Prayer is a practice. An action. An exercise. The more I treat it that way—rather than something I just randomly partake in—the more I can be intentional about cross-training in my own prayer life. Mixing things up. Exploring the riches of Christian spirituality, challenging myself to leave a comfort zone and go further, opening myself up more to the Holy Spirit. Yet also valuing those repeat workouts that allow each of us to listen to God more attentively as we pass through different phases of life.
Copyright 2014 Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Vermeulen
Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.
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