A couple tips on how to improve your focus during prayer
Laura DeMaria
Friends, I was on Morning Air this past Thursday to discuss the topic of how to improve your focus for a better prayer life. Of course, these tips help with focus for any task, and it seems to be our culture has a crisis of focus. You can hear that interview here, starting at 17:27.
The two tips I discuss are removing your phone from your bedroom at night so it’s not the first and the last think you check every day. Not only does that further erode your focus (constantly checking notifications), it distracts from the literal time you could use praying.
The other tip I share is to actually practice focusing. To practice your focus, choose something beautiful and look at it thoroughly for a time. That could be a stained glass window, a patch of sunlight on grass, the flowers in your back yard, a holy icon. The purpose is not to turn that time itself into a prayer, but to just…focus. Let the distracting thoughts come and go. Just look.
This conversation took place on the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus). I have written and spoken various places about what I owe St. Ignatius in terms of my own prayer life, and the contemplative form of prayer he created. I highly recommend taking an Igantian retreat if ever you are able.
By the way, apparently we had a caller who called in and said that this topic was very helpful to him, and timely, and that he was going to make a decision to work on his focus. But, he didn’t want to go on air to say that. Listeners and readers: please join me on the air! I would love to hear from you.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!