Pope Benedict XVI on Praying Without Ceasing

Praying without ceasing means: never losing contact with God, letting ourselves be constantly touched by him in the depths of our hearts and, in this way, being penetrated by his light. Only someone who actually knows God can lead others to God. Only someone who leads people to God leads them along the path of life.

Homily on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, 2012

I am struggling with the idea of “practicing the presence of God” – What can I do?

Q: Dear Father John, I have had a pretty regular prayer life for a few years, and have been going to confession regularly as well, and receiving Communion frequently.  In my spiritual reading, though, I keep coming across the idea of “practicing the presence of God.”  This means staying aware of Jesus throughout the day’s activities, right?  Well, I have been trying to do this, but can’t seem to make any progress.  The end of the day comes around, and then I remember that I should have been aware of his presence.  Is this something I should be worried about?

A: A beautiful question.  Beautiful for two reasons:  1) If “practicing the presence of God” keeps coming up in your personal reading and reflection, you can be sure it’s because the Holy Spirit wants you to keep this on your spiritual agenda.  This is how he coaches us – he puts something on our minds or hearts, and he keeps insisting on it.  And if God is drawing you towards this rather advanced spiritual discipline, it means that he is already helping you grow in it.  This is good stuff, altogether;  2) “Practicing the presence of God” will draw you closer to Christ than you ever dreamed possible, and that’s what it’s all about.  Now onto the answer.

No, you should not be worried about your difficulty or confusion in this area, you should be excited about it: God is teaching you something new!  Worry doesn’t come from God (if you mean by worrying a preoccupation that causes turbulence, doubt, and frustration in your soul).  It comes from our pride, our tendency to think that we can make ourselves perfect and save the world by our own efforts.  Remember, our Lord reminded us: “Do not fret about tomorrow, let tomorrow fret over its own cares.  For today, today’s troubles are enough” (Matthew 6:34).

On the other hand, your instinct is right: this is a point of spiritual work that you should pay attention to at this point in your journey; this is why God has put it on your agenda.  And here are some considerations that may help you do that.

What does it mean? “Practicing the presence of God” means not only staying aware of Jesus throughout the day, as you mention.  That’s part of it, but not all of it.  Practicing God’s presence means living every activity of the day with Jesus, by his side, sharing every experience with him.  Remember in your school days, how it was always more enjoyable to do your homework together with a good friend instead of all by yourself?  You didn’t have to be doing the exact same assignments, and you didn’t even have to be helping each other, but the mere fact that you together, that you were sitting in the same room, maybe at the same table, that you were in each other’s presence and could throw a couple words or looks back and forth every once awhile – that was enough to change the character of doing homework.  Think of another example.  How often do you go to a movie all by yourself?  Not very often, most likely, unless you are a professional movie critic or some sort.  You go to a movie with a good friend.  And even though you don’t spend those two hours talking with your friend, sharing the experience with that other person makes the experience more valuable, fruitful, and enjoyable.  This sharing of experiences – the experience of every activity of every day – with Christ, allowing him to share the experience of your life, that is the real heart of “practicing the presence of God.”

What does it yield? As we grow in this spiritual discipline, it has a major effect on our lives.  We were created to “live in communion with God, in whom we find happiness” (Catechism #45).  But in this fallen world, and due to our fallen nature, we tend towards a false sense of self-sufficiency.  This stifles our growth as human beings.  Instead of growing in wisdom, wonder, courage and all the virtues, when we live as if we were sufficient unto ourselves, we end up taking that path that eventually turns us into crotchety old men (or women), self-absorbed and self-absorbing, like black holes.  Practicing the presence of God helps us maintain and deepen our communion with God even in the midst of the trials and tribulations of life in a fallen world with a fallen human nature.  This is the path to holiness, God’s term for lasting happiness.

How to do it? Since everyone’s friendship with God is unique, no generic formula will suffice for developing this spiritual discipline.  Nevertheless, some common principles apply to all of us.

1. First of all, we need to develop the basic spiritual disciplines you mention in your question: a structured and consistent daily prayer life (this doesn’t have to be as complicated as a monastic prayer life, just sincere and substantial); regular and fruitful reception of the sacraments, especially Communion and confession (this is the objective foundation of our communion with God – God’s grace is the stuff of which our friendship with Christ is made); and a reasonable, mature effort to overcome one’s selfish tendencies and to grow in virtue (spiritual reading, a program of life, and spiritual direction are a big help here, as we’ve mentioned in other posts).
2. Secondly, we can experiment with practical techniques that will help us form the habit of remembering that we are never alone, that Jesus is at our side, eager to share our experiences and make them fruitful and meaningful.  Here is where tactics like the spiritual bouquet come into play (choosing a phrase at the end of the morning meditation that you will use as  a motto for the day, to keep in mind the insights and resolutions that came up in your meditation).  Here we can also get creative: using a screen-saver that will remind you of the Lord; keeping religious articles visible in key places that you will frequent during the day; programming reminders into your email calendar; praying the Angelus whenever you get into the car to go for a drive; dropping by a local shrine, chapel, or church on your way home from work, school, or shopping… Since the current of the culture in which we live flows in the direction of self-centeredness and self-absorption, we have to make a positive effort to swim against it.  Practical tactics can help.  But here’s a warning: these are only means to an end, so don’t be surprised if one such tactic helps you for a while but then stops “working.”  When that happens, experiment with something else.  I would love to hear about some of the tactics that our readers have used and found most helpful (just add them at the end of this post as a comment).
3. Thirdly, and most importantly, you (and all of us, really) need to ask yourself why it has been difficult for you to “practice the presence of God.”  Part of the reason will simply be the superficiality and pace of our culture.  Part of the reason will also be habits of self-centeredness that you haven’t yet overcome.  But a deeper reason may also be at work.  When you go to a dinner party with people who are important, fashionable, and popular, but who you don’t know very well, you are a bit nervous.  You are worried about making the right impression.  You don’t want to commit a faux pas or inadvertently offend someone.  You are excited to be invited, but the excitement is mixed in with some tension.  Whether things go well or ill, at the end of the night, when you get back in the car to head home, you breathe a sigh of relief; driving home with your spouse or with an old friend, you can be yourself again.  At the party you were sharing experiences with people, you were living in their presence, but you didn’t have a relationship of trust with them.  With your old friend, on the other hand, you never have to worry about making a good impression; you don’t have to be anxious about what they may think of you.  Your relationship is solid, resilient, familiar – you can relax together.  At times, the biggest obstacle to our “practicing the presence of God” is a subtle, subconscious fear about what God thinks of us.  In the back of our mind, we are concerned about making the right impression in God’s eyes, and so when we are “in his presence” we put on a show; we watch carefully over every word instead of speaking simply and from the heart; we try to live up to standards that we imagine God is expecting of us; we are afraid that if we don’t meet those extra expectations, God will be displeased with us – he won’t invite us back to the next party.  This mindset discourages us from living in God’s presence, because we can’t relax, we can’t be ourselves if we are trying to live up to artificial expectations.

But God is not like that.  He is not watching us like a hawk, just waiting for that faux pas, just looking for something to criticize.  He knows us through and through already.  He truly is the only friend who is perfect and perfectly committed to us.  He wants to share every moment of our life, because he is simply that interested in our lives, like the oldest friend, the one we can always count on.  That is how God is.  The more deeply and fully we believe that, the easier and more natural it will be to live always in his presence.

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC, ThD

Brother Lawrence – Continual Conversation With God

Dear Reverend and very honored Mother,

To become truly spiritual the heart must be empty of all other things, since God desires to be its only Master. And since He cannot be its Master without emptying it of all that is not Himself, He is prevented from doing all that He desires if it is not empty.

There is no manner of life in the world more sweet or more delicious than continual conversation with God. They alone can understand it who practice it and savor it. I do not advise you, however, to practice it for this motive. The desire for spiritual consolation must not be our purpose in carrying on this practice. Instead, let us do it out of love for God and because it is His will.

If I were a preacher, I would not preach anything else than the practice of the presence of God; and if I were a spiritual director, I would advise it to everyone – so much do I believe it necessary and yes, even easy.

Oh! If we only knew how much we need the grace and help of God, we would never lose sight of Him, not even for a moment. Believe me; make a holy and firm resolve never voluntarily to withdraw yourself from God’s grace from this time on. Live the rest of your days in God’s holy presence, even if He judges it fitting to deprive you of all consolations of Heaven and earth for the sake of His love. Put your hand to the plough. If you work as you should, be assured that you will soon see the fruit of your efforts. I will help you through my prayers, poor though they may be. I commend myself earnestly to your prayers and to those of your community, being to all, and to you more particularly.

Your humble servant,

Brother Lawrence

Taken from the third letter of “Practicing the Presence of God“

Brother Lawrence – On Managing Our Minds and Distractions in Prayer

Reverend and very honored Mother,

You are not writing anything new to me. You are not the only one agitated in thoughts. Our mind is extremely fickle, but since the will is master of all our powers, it must call back the mind and carry it to God as its final goal.

When the mind has not been brought down at the outset, and has a few wicked habits of straying and wasting time, these habits are difficult to conquer. They usually draw us, in spite of ourselves, back to the things of earth. I believe that a remedy for this is to admit our faults and humble ourselves before God.

I advise you not to pray aloud much during your fixed times of prayer. Long speeches often become an occasion for straying. Hold yourself before God as a poor mute, unable to talk, or as a paralytic at the door of a rich man. Busy yourself with keeping your mind in the presence of the Lord. If it strays and withdraws sometimes, do not worry about it. Worrying only serves to distract the mind rather than to call it back to God. The will must recall it gently. If you persevere in this way, God will have mercy on you.

One way to call your mind easily back to God during your fixed prayer times and to hold it more steady, is not to let it take much flight during the day. You must keep it strictly in the presence of God. As you become used to doing that over and over in your mind, it will be easy to remain at peace during your prayer times, or at least to recall your mind from its wanderings…

Your very humble servant,

Brother Lawrence

Taken from the eighth letter of “Practicing the Presence of God“

Problems with my mind… Any ideas?

To love God is everything to me – to serve him – more than everything. He is worthy of all that I have, all that I am. However, I have a problem. I have a very active mind. From the moment I rise to the moment I sleep my mind is racing. When I sleep, or I should say on the rare occasion that I do sleep, my mind is still racing.

So, who cares? Well, I thought it may be of interest to those who, like me, have a similar struggle and are looking for answers. We desire to reserve some capacity every moment of every waking hour for Christ. We want him present with us. We want to be present with him. We rise with that desire, we pray, we meditate, we discipline ourselves to hours of prayer. However, in the mean times – when we are not on our knees dedicated to the specific task of prayer (and unfortunately sometimes when we are), our minds are racing.

Then, the day suddenly comes to a close. Yes, we have given a good deal of time to prayer. However, as we close the day we realize that the majority of the time passed without even a hint of prayer. We created our tasks lists, even with our sacred callings in mind. However, once off of our knees, he really was nowhere to be found (in our hearts and minds). Not that he was not with us, but we were not with him. We are constantly in a flurry of self-sufficiency. Such that it even threatens and encroaches on our other spiritual commitments. Tasks and thoughts about tasks constantly push in to crowd him out as if they desire that he not be present – as if they, though good tasks, were presented by the devil himself – anything to keep us from him – even that which is “good.”

So, what is the answer? Really, I don’t know for sure. Thus far my attempts have been focused on nurturing my prayer life (morning and evening prayer etc.). By God’s mercy this effort has yielded great fruit. However, I don’t seem to be making much progress with the idea of staying present with Christ in between specific times of prayer.

This morning I read something helpful by Brother Lawrence. He said that evil begins in our thoughts. That we must be careful to reject each of these thoughts “as soon as we become aware that they are not essential to our present duties, or our salvation.” This idea struck me as very wise. I realized that I constantly entertain thoughts that though not evil or sinful in and of themselves, they fail to rise to the standard of helping with present duties and my salvation.

Is this the next great battle ground of my growth in faith? I think so. So why bring this to your attention? My hope is that if there is anyone out there that has overcome this challenge, that you might offer up suggestions to aid me and others in the fight.

With such an active mind and naturally aggressive work ethic, how can I reserve a portion of myself as always attentive to Christ – every waking moment of  my life?

Anonymous