25Root out hurry
Hurry is not just a full diary; it is a state of the heart, and in a hurry one can neither love nor pray. When John Ortberg asked Dallas Willard what he should do for his spiritual life, he got a single piece of advice: ruthlessly eliminate hurry. A practical start: choose the longer queue at the checkout, drive in the slower lane, leave five empty minutes between appointments. Whoever learns not to hurry during the day can sit still in the evening.
Isa 30:15 “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you would not.”
John Ortberg · The Life You've Always Wanted“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.”
26A daily diet of silence
Silence is to prayer what soil is to seed. Whoever is surrounded all day by noise, music in the earphones and podcasts will not be capable of silence in prayer, because they do not know it. Set up small islands of silence: the drive without the radio, washing up without earphones, the first ten minutes of the day without a screen. The silence need not be “spiritual”; it is enough that it is.
Ps 131:2 “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
Thomas à Kempis · The Imitation of Christ I/20“In silence and quiet the devout soul makes progress.”
27Sleep is a spiritual discipline
Whoever goes to bed at midnight and gets up at six has no chance of praying in the morning other than half asleep. A sleep-deprived person is irritable, scattered and emotionally flat – and that is exactly how he comes to God. C. S. Lewis warned that the last moments before falling asleep are the worst possible time for prayer, because by then nobody can think any more. Go to bed earlier. It is a prayer decision.
Ps 127:2 “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
28Morning, before the world
Most teachers of prayer agree on the morning – not because it is holier but because it is not yet occupied. In the afternoon a hundred things compete with you for time. Luther warns against the thought “in an hour”: one waits to finish this and that, and the day slips away. Morning is the only time nobody can take from you – if you take it first.
Ps 5:3 “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.”
Martin Luther · A Simple Way to Pray“Guard against the thought: wait, I'll pray in an hour, first I must finish this and that. The day will slip away from you.”
29First a happy soul, then service
After years George Müller found he had been making a mistake: straight after waking he plunged into prayer for the orphanages, but his heart was cold. He changed the order: first he read Scripture until his soul rejoiced in the Lord, and only then did he pray. It is not the exhausted and irritable who can ask, but the one who has been fed. The order is: first let yourself be addressed, then speak.
George Müller · Narratives“The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord.”
30The phone physically elsewhere
Not “on silent”, not “screen down” – in another room. The brain knows the phone is lying next to you, and part of your attention stays with it even when you cannot see it. Whoever buys an ordinary alarm clock for a few pounds gets the mornings back. The same applies to smartwatches.
Ps 119:37 “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.”
31A small rule of life
Monks have a rule: an order that decides in advance when what is done, so they need not decide it afresh every day. Write your own: when you get up, when you pray, when you stop looking at screens, when you have a day of silence. Three to five lines, no more. Decisions made once stop costing you willpower every morning. Eugene Peterson speaks of “a long obedience in the same direction”; that is exactly what the small rule makes possible.
Ps 90:12 “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
32Prayer and work are not rivals
Brother Lawrence was a monastery cook and claimed that in the noise of the kitchen, where many people wanted many things of him at once, he experienced God just as he did kneeling before the sacrament. Inner prayer does not shut itself into the half hour; the half hour is only the place where you learn what you then carry into work. And work done for God leads back to prayer.
Col 3:23 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Brother Lawrence · The Practice of the Presence of God, 4th conversation“In the noise of my kitchen I possess God as peacefully as if I were kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament.”
33Tidy relationships
Jesus speaks of the gift at the altar and the unreconciled brother: first go, then bring. An unresolved conflict, a debt, unforgiveness – all of it will speak up precisely when you grow quiet, and it will be louder than any distraction. Whoever wants to pray inwardly needs to tidy up regularly. Sometimes the best preparation for prayer is one phone call.
Matt 5:23-24 “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
34Comfort and prayer do not go together
Teresa writes this sentence in the chapter on how the sisters' life should look, and she is uncompromising. Whoever spares himself in everything – in food, in comfort, in never being cold, hungry or without entertainment – cannot bear even half an hour of emptiness. Pierre-Marie of the Cross sees it the same way: laziness, comfort-seeking, distraction and idle talk eventually face a person with an ultimatum – either that, or prayer. You need not be an ascetic. It is enough to notice where you spare yourself and, now and then, not to.
Isa 55:2 “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”
Teresa of Ávila · The Way of Perfection 4/2“Comfort and prayer do not go together.”
35Guard what you feed on during the day
What you let into your head in the afternoon – the argument on social media, the series, the news item that made you angry – is exactly what will pop up in prayer. Cassian says we pray the way we lived before prayer, and Pierre-Marie of the Cross builds his whole treatment of distraction on this sentence: it is above all the last quarter of an hour before prayer that decides. A practical rule: for a quarter of an hour before prayer, let nothing new in.
Prov 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
John Cassian · Conferences 9/3“Such as we wish to be found at prayer, such we must strive to be before prayer.”
36Solitude and community hold each other up
Inner prayer is not an escape from the church. Whoever can be alone with God brings something into the congregation that would otherwise be missing; and the congregation in turn protects him from letting his solitude degenerate into self-centredness or eccentricity. Bonhoeffer says both in a single sentence. Hold both: silence in the morning, people in the evening.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Life Together“Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”
37Fasting clears the hearing
Fasting is not just “not eating”; it is a form of emptiness in which the body reminds the soul that something is missing. Whoever fasts now and then finds that hunger for food and hunger for God are related, and that a full stomach prays badly. Start modestly: one day a week without lunch, and give the lunch hour to silence. Do not talk about it.
Matt 6:17-18 “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
38One day a week differently
Sabbath rest is not a Jewish peculiarity but God's gift to people who otherwise never stop. Whoever gets things done seven days a week cannot stop in prayer either. Choose one day (or at least half a day) when nothing is handled, bought or planned – and notice how hard that is. The very difficulty shows how much you need it.
Mark 6:31 “And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”
39Narrow your wanting
The psalmist asks “one thing”. Most of us want a thousand things and therefore cannot devote ourselves to anything. Inner prayer needs a person who knows what he wants most. It is not about wanting nothing but about ordering your desires so that one is on top. Try writing down what yours is – and what stands in its way.
Ps 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf“I have but one passion: it is He, only He.”
40“I don't have time”
Pierre-Marie of the Cross opens one of his reflections with the observation that everyone is out of breath: everyone has so much work that nobody has time even to do nothing – and yet only God can give breath back. “I don't have time” is the most frequent reason we do not pray, and it is almost always untrue. Try writing down for a week, in half-hour slots, where your time goes. As a rule it turns out the time is there; it is just occupied by things we do not even know we are doing.
Eph 5:15-16 “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”
Pierre-Marie of the Cross · I Have No Time“Nobody has time any more even to do nothing.”
