As part of a school assignment, I ran across a delightful article on prayer. I felt so refreshed upon reviewing this article that I wanted to share it. Here is the link to the article, followed by the review I wrote for class. I hope you will enjoy reading this article as much as I did, and be reminded of the daily refreshment we have through prayer:
The Importance of Personal Prayer
Review of Balducci, Rachel. (2014). The importance of personal prayer. Catholic Digest, 78, 54-57.
This is a delightful and profound article on prayer. It is profound in its simplicity: our life just goes better when we make time to pray.
Prayer cultivates Christ-likeness. Prayer is a key to our transformation, because through prayer we spend time with Jesus.
The author quotes Father Brett Brennan that we have two ways to become more like Jesus. One is through prayer, and the other is to experience the fellowship of the suffering of Christ. Wouldn’t it be preferable to make prayer a priority?
Prayer nurtures our relationship with Christ, grows us in grace, allows us to share Christ with others, and reminds us of our utter dependence on God. In other words, prayer fills us with Christ.
Prayer is not about the amount of time or a ritual. It is heart conversations with God. Even 15 minutes a day of intentional prayer is helpful.
Our biggest hindrance to prayer is that we don’t make it a priority. There will never be an ideal time for prayer; we will always be busy. We just need to do it.
No matter what is going on, prayer fills us with Jesus, who is our source of peace. We were made to be in relationship with God, and prayer is a gift that helps us grow in this relationship.
Balducci’s article also contains 5 helpful suggestions for making prayer a daily habit.
Adventures with God 