“How much time do we spend on social media, watching movies, attending concerts, and hanging out with our friends? If we can spend four hours attending or watching a football game, why is it so difficult to spend an hour or two attending worship? If we can spend two hours listening to a music concert, why do we complain that the sermons we hear are too long? And if the social media steal an average of two hours, or even up to six or nine hours for tweens and teenagers, why does a sermon lose our attention if it goes past fifteen or twenty minutes?” (Fr. Basil)
“Many of us struggle with living an active spiritual life. It is not uncommon to come home and relax on the couch watching TV instead of reading about the saint of the day. It is easy to spend hours on social media and the Internet but for some reason it is difficult to spend five to ten minutes in prayer twice a day the work of Christians—participating in Liturgy, saying our daily prayers, etc.—is hard work! That statement, though simple, should be encouraging to all…Christians who find keeping up with their daily spiritual life difficult. The world we live in sets impossible standards of wealth, fame, fortune and glory, and it is easy to get swept up, forgetting what we are really on this earth for. But this fact should not be discouraging. It should be inspiring. What a mission! We are called for a different purpose, to be in the world but not of it.” (Fr. Thomas Hopko, Maria Diveris McMullen)
“…we might ask ourselves how much and how often we bring our fear to God in prayer. Rededicating to Christ means regularly beginning anew in our efforts to pray more fervently. We cannot become less self-absorbed by our own efforts. Fundamentally this is the work of God,. What we can do, however, is decide to set aside a certain amount of time every day, whether it be five minutes or fifty five minutes or something in between, for personal prayer with Christ. Our quiet time can be a time to bring our concerns and our strivings to the Lord with the request of taking on the ‘mind of Christ’.” (Albert Rossi, Gay Rossi and Stewart Armour)
“…no matter how much we must do or what has to get done, we clear 20-30 minutes in the morning to pray. This builds the foundation of our day. It gives us our footing and tilts our disposition forward, so we are in a position to lean into the world and the day’s events rather than start the day on our heels. Starting the day with prayer means we are like the ship that starts its voyage with the sails up.” (Fr. Joshua Makoul)
“…people who pray for twenty minutes or more a day express a much higher level of satisfaction with their prayer life than those who pray less than that.” (Rev. Christopher H. Martin)
“If you commit to doing contemplative breathing for ten minutes every day, you may find these ten minutes becoming the most important minutes of your life.” (Robin Phillips)
#FrBasil #FrThomasHopko #MariaDiverisMcMullen #AlbertRossi #GayRossi #StewartArmour #FrJoshuaMakoul #RevChristopherHMartin #RobinPhillips