How can you pray so much?

Benedictine monks have a saying that helps guide their daily routine: ora et labora, which is Latin for “pray and work.”

I often get asked how I could spend so much time connecting with God each and every day. Three to four hours of prayer and meditation is a lot of time to be just sitting around. And if all one does is just sit around, then yes, that’s a lot of time and it will feel very much so.

First of all, I consider myself to be a modern monastic. I live a modern life and I have a modern schedule. I must work within the constraints of the complex modern world and lifestyle I find myself in. And so, I rarely spend three to four hours with God in a single sitting. I wish I could. I’ve had times like those. They’re always wonderful. But that’s the exception as my schedule rarely permits such a luxury. Instead, I usually break up the length of my times with God into two or three parts which are dispensed throughout the day. Generally, I have a long morning period, a short midday period, and then a long evening period. If needed due to scheduling issues, I may break up the length even further into four, five, or more parts. Flexibility is key. Traditional monks tend to also operate in this way where prayer is scheduled at specific times throughout the day. My modern schedule resists the placing of specific times during the day for when prayers will happen and so I’ve learned to be flexible and to adjust according to each day’s schedule. But the idea of placing prayer times throughout the day rather than in one big chunk is similar to what traditional monks would do. In fact, Benedictine monks have a saying that helps guide their daily routine: ora et labora, which is Latin for “pray and work.” They would intersperse prayer and activity (work) throughout the day, going back and forth between the two. I try to do something similar.

Secondly, I have a plan. I don’t just come to a time of prayer with nothing in hand. If I come with nothing, I’ll be left wondering what to do. I will grow bored and I will end the time before I’ve even begun. Over the last few months, through some experimentation, I’ve crafted a plan that resonates with me. That plan includes a variety of spiritual exercises and activities that I can do in any given session with the Lord. I’m also constantly tweaking and experimenting with that plan to make it better, like adding new things or removing things that no longer resonate. I’ll be sharing some of these spiritual exercises in blog posts down the road. But for now, it’s important to know that I have some sort of a plan when it comes to my times with God rather than relying on “winging it” then and there.

So, if you break up your times of prayer into manageable portions and you craft a plan that includes a variety of spiritual exercises, spending large amounts of time with the Lord each and every day isn’t such a far-fetched idea after all.

Barnabas the Monastic

Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.