If you’re reading this article, odds are you’re not totally new to the Faith. You’ve probably read other Catholic blogs, books from the saints, and watched a Fr. Mike Schmitz video or two. This won’t be the first time you’ve read about the importance of starting your day with mental prayer, but, if it’s something you’re not sure of or struggling with, then I hope this article equips and inspires you to add this essential routine to your daily schedule. If you’re already practicing it, then I hope you are fortified in your commitment to it.
There’s a quote I love from St. Francis de Sales from his Introduction to the Devout Life where he says:
Give an hour every day to meditation before dinner—if you can, let it be early in the morning, when your mind will be less cumbered, and fresh after the night’s rest. Do not spend more than an hour thus, unless specially advised to do so by your spiritual father. (emphasis added)
It’s important to note two things here at the outset:
- St. Francis doesn’t say you must pray first thing in the morning. He just says we need to pray at least once a day for no more than an hour.
- He gives us one of the most practical reasons to pray first thing in the morning, which is because our minds are less distracted and filled with the worries of our day-to-day lives.
With this in mind, I’ll say that the most important thing is that you pray every day! That is infinitely more important than when you pray. But, like St. Francis de Sales, I do believe that starting our day with mental prayer is a key to making it more fruitful and habitual.
Now, how can we actually get this done? Especially if you have kids at home and need to be out the door early for your morning commute, or if you are a priest or religious who has early morning Mass or other obligations that cannot be put aside. I think one of the common misconceptions is that your mental prayer has to be a holy hour, but those two are really not the same things at all.
For most of us, the holy hour first thing in the morning, while not necessarily impossible, is not something we can do consistently every single day, especially if you also need to get a workout in. That’s my encouragement here: we find something that we can do consistently—not necessarily perfectly, but consistently—as a habit we can easily fall back into after we get back from the work trip, or the kid is no longer sick, or whatever other obstacle life throws at you.
1. Define the Length of Your Prayer Time
The first step in making mental prayer possible is to examine how much time we can consistently give to it first thing in the morning. Maybe it’s 10 minutes, maybe it’s 30, or maybe it is an actual holy hour. Different seasons of life will determine how much time you can spend in mental prayer first thing in the morning.
If, after an honest examination, you say, “I can only give 10 minutes,” that’s great! Way better than nothing. And it doesn’t mean you’re only going to pray for 10 minutes the entire day, especially if you can pray a rosary while driving or do some spiritual reading in the evening. All this is saying is that the time you can spend first thing in the morning in meditation is 10 minutes, and you can do that consistently, on a daily basis.
2. Start Your Morning at Bedtime
Now to the step that most people find challenging. If you need to wake up a little bit earlier than usual to get your mental prayer in, because right now it’s not happening, then you have to start the day before it even begins—with your bedtime.
When I was a missionary over a decade ago, there was a quote in training that still sticks with me. I’m not sure who said it originally, but the quote was, “A decision to stay up late is a decision not to pray in the morning.” That still holds true today. If your excuse for not praying in the morning is because you’re too tired, and yet you stay up until 10:00, 11:00, or 12:00 at night, that’s not a morning problem. It’s a bedtime discipline problem.
3. Set Your Alarm and Commit
Here’s the next step: set your alarm to a time where you can actually engage in mental prayer in the morning. If the time looks scary to you, set a bedtime that’s going to empower you to get up at this time consistently.
Fair warning: the first week or two might be rough. If you can consistently wake up at the time you set, your body will start wanting to go to sleep a little bit earlier than normal. It won’t happen quickly, and it definitely won’t happen the first day or two, but if you stick to it, it will work. So…go to bed!
There’s definitely more we can say about setting up your bedtime routine in order to protect your morning routine. I talk about this more in my book Sanctify Your Day: A Structure to Live an Intentional, Healthy, and Holy Life.
4. No Distractions Before Prayer
For now, my encouragement to you is this: give the first fruits of your day to the Lord before checking your cell phone, before your kids start demanding your attention, before you answer that first work email. Let Him fill your cup. Let Him love you.
If you know someone who’s suffering or is living a life of grave sin, allow your morning prayer to become a time for Jesus to rest and take comfort in the garden of your heart. Give Him a place of respite from the wounds of His most Sacred Heart.
Remember that your personal prayer time isn’t merely one of many places to grow in your relationship with God. Your prayer time is your relationship with God. Give your morning to Him.
Editor’s Note: For more practical tips on how to live a healthy, holy life, check out Chase Crouse’s new book, Sanctify Your Day: A Structure to Live an Intentional, Healthy, and Holy Life, available from Sophia Institute Press.
Photo by Solving Healthcare on Unsplash
