Monday, October 18, 2010

How Long Should I Pray Each Day?

The passage from My Meditation on the Gospel (The Confraternity of the Precious Blood  http://confraternitypb.org) that I read this morning was about Mark 14:37-42.  When I read the line "Could you not keep watch for one hour?" I wondered about the significance of "one hour."  Why one hour?  Why not more or why not less?

Jesus says what He means and means what He says. Knowing He knew well our human nature, Jesus wasn't asking Simon for something that he could not achieve.  Jesus' use of the words "keeping watch" is another interesting part of this passage.  When I minimally interpret "keeping watch" as meaning "time of prayer" I take away the length of time for which I should "keep watch" daily.  One hour of prayer a day.  Sounds like a lot.

But given, the many different forms of prayer, one hour is not really much.  A Rosary and a Divine Mercy chaplet will personally get me about 30 minutes.  Add another 30 minutes of prayerful reflection of the Bible, or maybe Theology of the Body, and that hour is gone before I know it.  The trouble is where do I find that hour.  Actually, the real trouble is where do I make an hour to do this.