Catholic Spiritual Growth – Overcoming Inertia to Establish a Habit of Prayer
Catholic spiritual growth is not easy. Even just establishing a habit of prayer means fighting against the inertia of our habits. There is a right way to overcome this inertia and there is a wrong way
Let’s talk about some of your barriers to establishing a daily prayer habit. Then we’ll find out the right way to overcome them.
The Fruit of a Daily Prayer Habit
Establishing a habit of daily prayer is an important early step in Catholic spiritual growth. The first thing such a habit does for you is to get you into the more general habit of making God a top priority in your life. In human relationships we give those we love the gift of time. If we have to, we schedule that time (for example, making a date with your spouse). We block out that time and don’t let anything else encroach on it. So doing this for God means making him a top priority.
The second thing a habit of daily prayer does for us is to open us to intimacy with God. God will reveal himself to us if we open our hearts to him. This is true prayer. But again this works just like human relationships do. You have to spend the time. You have to listen. You have to practice opening your heart.
Overcoming Inertia
But if we want to get a habit of prayer we need to overcome our own inertia. That can be darn hard to do. Have you ever tried to kick a bad habit? Then you know what I’m talking about. Anyone who has tried to quit smoking knows that it’s more than just overcoming an addiction to nicotine. It’s the habit of having something in your hand and something in your mouth. It’s the habit of having a social anchor, something to gather around with other smokers. Quitting the habit means overcoming all of that in addition to the chemical addiction.
But the law of inertia has two parts. Not only does it say that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by a force, it also says that an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by a force. Establishing a new habit can be just as difficult as kicking an old one.
The Usual Advice
When it comes to establishing the habit of prayer, the traditional advice includes a simple formula:
- Pray for 30 minutes a day
- At the same time every day
- At the same place
- Using the same prayer form
- In a comfortable but attentive posture
This advice isn’t bad as far as it goes. It contains the basic idea of building a habit. Repeat the action until it becomes a mental pattern and doing it becomes second nature to you. But what this advice misses is the need to overcome inertia. This method asks us to go a completely different direction from the current rhythm of our life. That’s hard to do – not impossible – but difficult.
A Better Solution – the Art of Judo
A better approach uses the same idea that underlies the martial art known as Judo – “the Gentle Way.” One of the main ideas behind Judo is not to work against the inertia of your opponent, but to work with it. If your opponent pushes against you, you flow with his movement and then redirect his inertia where you want him to go.
We can use the same principle when we are trying to create a new habit, such s the habit of prayer. Work with your inertia by pairing your habit of prayer with something that you are already doing. Are you already in the habit of taking a walk or drinking morning coffee? Pray while you walk or while you drink your coffee. This method doesn’t take away all of your resistance to establishing a new habit. But flowing with the inertia of your life does make a new habit of prayer much easier.
Bonus Tip – It especially difficult to try to establish a habit in isolation. You will find much more strength if you develop your prayer life in the context of an overall spiritual growth plan.
If you need help developing such a plan, check out the free video series “the Keys to Spiritual Growth.” This series will introduce you to five areas of spiritual growth that make up a complete plan. If you choose to watch this video series at https://fromtheabbey.com and to participate in the spiritual growth challenge, you’ll not only get the guidance you need but also the accountability and support.
Brought to you by Jeffrey Arrowood, founder of the Catholic educational apostolate From the Abbey – encouraging you to rediscover the JOY of learning and living your faith so you can grow in intimacy with God.