In a number of places in the Bible, we are exhorted to pray to God without ceasing (Luke 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18, to name a few). But how is this possible? Are we called to pray like monks? I’m not cloistered—I have a job, kids, etc. I cannot spend all my time in a church in front of the Blessed Sacrament…and really, neither can monks. They have to attend to other things as well. So if God doesn’t ask what’s not possible, how can we go about doing this?
Pray at Certain Times
First of all, as the Catechism says, “we cannot pray ‘at all times’ if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it” (2697). As the witness of the saints attests, if we are putting in the effort of love to keep fixed times of prayer every day, we will grow in the grace to keep the presence of God throughout the day. Fixed times of prayer eventually “bleed” into more and more aspects of our day. So, step one: set aside some fixed prayer time every day.
But what about when I am listening to my wife or one of my kids tell me about their day? Or if I were an electrician performing some very technical job that requires 100% concentration? Or a pilot landing a plane? Doesn’t God actually want us to focus on the tasks and people that he has entrusted to us in those moments without divided attention? If so, how can we pray without ceasing?
Expand Your Definition of Prayer
We need to purify and expand our definition of prayer. Prayer definitely includes discursive conversation with God, where we talk and listen, in solitude, with our undivided attention on him. But the life of prayer is not only expressed through conversation, but also through action. This does not always necessitate discursive thought or conversation. Indeed, sometimes it cannot! So how does that work?
God made all things through his Word, and all of his works of creation are “words” of his that he has “spoken” into existence. We have been baptized into the very life of the Word, as sons and daughters in the Son. So, when a son or daughter of God is in a state of grace, living within the current of God’s very life, and when that son or daughter offers some work or activity to God—attaches a supernatural intention to it—and then does it with love, they infuse supernatural meaning into their work. That work prolongs and perfects the “word” of creation and redemption, and becomes a word of love well said. And what else is prayer but words of love well said?
How Can I Pray Without Ceasing?
So how do we pray at all times? Live in God’s grace. Pray in faith at specific times. Offer your day, and rectify that offering frequently throughout out the day—for God’s glory. Then put yourself completely into whatever you’re doing. This converts work into words of love well said: prayer. And already this prayer is apostolate through the witness of a love-infused life; but even more so if it is offered for people, converting it into a form of intercessory prayer.
In this way, we can pray without ceasing, turning our lives—even when it doesn’t feel like it—into flames of love rising to God that at the same time set the world ablaze.
Peter Andrastek is a Ministry Consultant at the Evangelical Catholic. The Evangelical Catholic’s mission is to equip Catholics to live out the Great Commission. Learn more.
