From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for The Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025 September 28)

Parish School of Prayer, Pt 20: Time for Prayer

How are we doing with our prayer pledges? Made? Kept? If you are still “discerning” it, stop by the Adoration Chapel and prayerfully fill out the “renewing my relationship with the Lord” worksheet. (While there, ask the Lord of the Chapel if He’s not calling you to incorporate a committed adoration hour into that plan! 😀)

Question 83 of the “second part of the second part” of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica is a masterful treatise on prayer. There you can find the Angelic Doctor’s answers to questions such as  “Should we pray to God alone?” “Is attention necessary in prayer?” and “Whether those in mortal sin can obtain anything from God by their prayers,” in addition to his beautiful explanation of the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. He also addresses the question of how long should we pray when we pray. His answer comes in his trademark “distinguished” style: 

We may speak about prayer in two ways: first, by considering it in itself; secondly, by considering it in its cause. The cause of prayer is the desire of charity, from which prayer ought to arise: and this desire ought to be in us continually, either actually or virtually, for the virtue of this desire remains in whatever we do out of charity; and we ought to “do all things to the glory of God.” From this point of view prayer ought to be continual: wherefore Augustine says: “Faith, hope and charity are by themselves a prayer of continual longing.” But prayer, considered in itself, cannot be continual, because we have to be busy about other works. … Now the quantity of a thing should be commensurate with its end, for instance the quantity of medicine should be commensurate with health. And so it is becoming that prayer should last long enough to arouse the fervor of the interior desire: and when it exceeds this measure, so that it cannot be continued any longer without causing weariness, it should be discontinued.

There you have it. We should pray until our hearts are kindled with holy desires, which elsewhere St. Thomas calls the fire of devotion, i.e. the readiness to give oneself to God’s will. Those in whom that fire is already smouldering usually require little time to enkindle it anew; yet they can also stand amid those flames for a long while without experiencing that “weariness” which St. Thomas says is a sign that it’s time for another activity. For the rest of us, who tend to be cold and hard of heart, we may need to thaw out in the oven of prayer longer, even though we weary more quickly in it for lack of love. 

In either case, we need to spend time in God’s presence, directing our thoughts and desires to Him, striving to see His way and hear His voice, and relating all that is in our hearts to what’s revealed in His. It’s great to shoot God loving looks and darts of devotion throughout the day. But unless and until we have arrived at a permanent mystical state, we need “quality time” with God each day, if we are serious about loving Him above “all things” (that is, all things that clamor for our time and attention and affection each day!). As the Catechism says, “Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray“ and later, “[W]e cannot pray ‘at all times’ if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it.” (CCC 2650, 2697). 

The Church Fathers loved to compare the soul to a rod of wrought iron. Prayer plunges that rod into the furnace of God’s heart. If one perseveres in prayer, that rod will, in time, be transformed into the Fire itself. Trust in the process! Entrust your time to the powerful hand of the Divine Blacksmith! Plunge yourself into His presence, in season and out of season, in consolation or desolation. Especially if we have a history of sin, it can take a long time for the iron to become sensitive to the heat, and longer still before we are softened, warmed, and begin to glow with Divine Love. One step, one day, one period of prayer at a time… and His grace will take care of the rest.

From the Heart of the Shepherd: The Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time