Many of us have found prayer habits that allow us to be more present in our relationships with God.  This list of seven habits is based upon what I have learned and practiced in my walk with God.  Let it be an encouragement to you.

1. All day prayer - It may be hard for us to pin down specific times in the day to pray.  We all try to make the committment, but it does not always work.  The idea in what I call “all day prayer”, is to attach our prayer to everyday, even mundane activities that we routinely do throughout the day.  For example, as you make the bed, you pray.  As you do the dishes, pray.  As you walk the dog, pray.  Just short prayers attached to what we all do throughout the day.

2. Prayer of Examen - This prayer practice introduced by Saint Ignatius, encourages us to consider our whole day and all which that entails. Our work, our play, and our interactions with others.  As we pray we review our day before God.  In the prayer we ask him to show us where there was freedom, or where we found places of restriction.  We then have the opportunity to give praise or ask God to help us where we are stuck.  In this practice we will find patterns in our relationship with God and others.  Usually done at the end of the day, I have found that it works better for me to review the previous day the next morning.  The examen, can be done daily.  It can also be used to examine larger portions of time, such as weeks, months, and even years.

3. Lectio Divina - Or sacred reading, is praying with scripture.  It involves taking small portions of scripture up to perhaps seven verses and reviewing them with God.  This prayer lets the scripture speak to us in a word, phrase, or image to bring Gods meaning to us. This sacred reading, is a conversation between us and God.

4. Silent prayer - Generally our prayer is that of making requests to God.  It usually seems to be us doing all of the talking.  Silent prayer allows us to take time to listen to God.  It allows us to pause and to hear that still small voice.  In this prayer we come to God without any other agenda except to spend time with him.  It is best to start with small increments of time and building from there.

5. Journaling - This particular practice can deepen our awareness of God and can allow us to savor our prayer times with God.  Perhaps this habit is used in tandem with “the examen”, which is how I use it, or with another prayer practice.  The process of journaling allows us to see and feel our words to God as we write them.  In addition, as we look back in our journals we are able to see the distance that we have traveled with, and towards God.

6. Walk and Pray - Have you ever had a lot on your mind and decided to go for a walk?  Or perhaps needed to vent and did that with another as you were walking?  That is the idea here.  There is something about the walking and how it allows for our thoughts or conversation to get expressed and sorted out.  In this case it is actually attuning ourselves in prayer to God.  Walking prayer is typically done at a slow pace.  It is to slow things down in our hearts and minds, while opening ourselves up to God.

7. Solitude - In scripture we have examples of the Old Testament Prophets and Jesus spending time alone with God in solitude.  Obviously, this is an example for us to follow.  We too can get away from the hustle and bustle in our lives and spend time with God.  Perhaps we are not able to take larger periods of time in solitude but this does not minimize its’ value.  Solitude is of such great importance to our walk of faith, that thirty minutes to one hour can be helpful to us on our journey with God.

     Take a look at this list and see what you might find to make as a habit for yourself.  Perhaps there is a habit of prayer that is not found on this list that you can share with us, if so please do.  If you have experience with any of these habits please take the opportunity to share them as well.

Picture: Our Prayers by Fubuki