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Spiritual GPS
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DISTRACTIONS AND PRAYER
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God has given us a tremendous set of faculties in our bodies. We can hear, we
can see, we can move from one spot to another at our will – all things which a
dead body cannot do. We can control all our actions unless we are under some
drug that alters our actions. So when we are in control of our actions we are
responsible for what we do.
Driving down the road we have to be aware of things that pop up in front of us,
no matter whether it is a deer or a red light or an automobile – and we react to it,
and we immediately react to set our course correct and not have a crash. That is
just simply the way of life.
For us humans and I guess for anything living, we sometime hesitate to change
our way of course and then we have which we certainly did not want. For
instance, we like to pray. It is a good thing to do, so many of us do it frequently,
whether it is of obligation or just because we feel at that time to talk to God or to
the saints or the Blessed Mother. Take the Hail Mary. I don’t think that there is a
child that does not know the Hail Mary. We have learned it as a child and when
we recite it, it just comes naturally, without thinking of what we are saying half
the time. Things pop up into our minds and try to distract from actually paying
attention to the words we are saying. These are involuntary distractions and can
last quite a while unless we realize that we have to stop them. There is no guilt
until we recognize we should get rid of them. They may range from just a bird
flying in front of us while we saying the rosary to fantasies that we have to get
rid of immediately. You might say that we have been switched off the track and
when we realize it we get back on track to what we are dong
These are different from distractions we set up or are aware of as we are doing
something. For instance, we are reading a book and at the same time are
watching a ballgame. We are aware of the possibility of having distractions -
many times we actually want them to get our mind off the book or the game.
These distractions are not culpable because they have nothing to do with our
prayer life, although we set up the possibility of have them.
Now if we take this one step further, knowing the possibility of having distraction
while we trying to say a prayer, we do have some culpability in so far as we do
not pay attention to the prayer we are saying. Imagine trying to say the rosary
while watching a ball game which we purposely turn on. When we give in to such
distractions or actually set them up with the possibility that they will distract us
while we try to pray, we have some culpability here. We have to take the
responsibility in this case and cannot just rub it off as we would a bird that flies
in front of us.
October is the month of the Holy Rosary. We who are dedicated to the Blessed
Mother as Legion of Mary, should, I think, try our best to say her rosary without
any voluntary distractions. As I sad, involuntary distractions will come and go,
but voluntary distraction is something we have control of from the beginning.
Fr Louis Schlangen © October 2011
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