Praying with small children.

“There is a tradition, strong among spiritual writers, that we will not advance within the spiritual life unless we pray at least an hour a day privately. I was stressing this one day in a talk, when a lady asked how this might apply to her, given that she was home with young children who demanded her total attention.

'Where would I ever find an uninterrupted hour each day?’ she moaned. ‘I would, I am afraid, be praying with children screaming and tugging at my pant leg.’

A few years ago, I might have been tempted to point out to her that if her life was that hectic then she, of all people, needed time daily away from her children, for private prayer, among other things. As it is, I gave her different advice: ‘If you are home alone with small children whose needs give you little uninterrupted time, then you don’t need an hour of private prayer daily. Raising small children, if it is done with love and generosity, will do for you exactly what prayer does.’”

-Ronald Rolheiser, “Domestic Monastery”

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Photo credit: Photo by George Bakos on Unsplash