When You’re Distracted in Prayer

hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and this is the centuries I just bit my tongue oh God we know prayer is essential we know that prayer is good for us we know that prayer is a gift of God and also it's a response on our part we're going to talk about that at some point make a video about the Battle of prayer but we also recognize that it is really easy to get distracted in prayer it happens to all of us to such a degree that we need to become accustomed to the reality that that's just what happens but it doesn't mean you're failing in prayer it's an obstacle but does mean you're failing and secondly you can actually use distractions to help you pray and so let's look at this for a second first recognize distractions in prayer are a natural thing why because your brain is not a static thing like your your brain is a thing that is constantly moving think about this we never hold one thought in our mind at a time because your brain is always active brain is always active therefore if you're thinking about one thing you have to actively choose to think about that one thing again and again you're constantly choosing it in the moment there's some kind of distraction your brain's gonna start being directed towards that thing because our brains are not static our brains are incredibly Dynamic and so just get right off the bat right out of the gate just realize okay I'm gonna get distracted that's just gonna what's gonna happen now here's what happens typically right we're praying we're talking to the Lord or even meditating on something so maybe we're doing some lectio Divina we've got mass and the priest says something or the one of the prayers is gets you to a place where you're just really praying about this in a deeper way and then all of a sudden you find yourself like wait you are out the door you are down the hallway you're down the road you're in a completely another County like it's a situation where you were right dialed in and all of a sudden you are on another planet that is completely natural here's what happens right we just like think like here's here's the the gospel and here's the gospel of being preached is the gospel of uh the parable of the talents right so so Jesus gives this person 10 talents and this person and five talents on the person one talent and you're just like okay talents and like wow you know praying about talents like yeah God's given us talents and then you're like yeah America's good America's Got Talent yeah and you know there's another show I remember who'd I see in America America's Got Talent because that was a really incredible Talent also there's a Britain's Got Talent too there's there's two I wonder which one's better Simon Cowell's on but is he on both of those or is he just on American Idol I know typically what we do when we get distracted we find ourselves like you know going over here what we typically do is we do what a a new driver will do if they're ever on Ice if you've ever seen ever been a young driver on ice or a new driver on Ice uh we're seeing that you know what they do they start going off to the side and so they like massively over correct right and then what happens is you go not from that side of the road you go to that side of the road sometimes that's what we do right we find ourselves kind of like our minds are getting distracted a little bit and so we realize we're distracted we're way over here and so then we just have to really over correct so that instead of just bringing it back here we're like way over here now and so we sometimes even get distracted by the fact that we're distracted and that becomes like well I don't know what to do with my prayer now because I'm interacted by everything that's why I think it was Saint Therese of Le Sue she would say something like if I'm distracted a thousand times in my holy hour a thousand times I will simply calmly this is a calm I will calmly realize or recognize that I'm distracted and then gently bring my heart and my mind and my attention back to the Lord if I have to do that a thousand times in my holy hour I'll do it a thousand times I don't do it calmly and gently just bring myself back bring my attention back to the Lord that is in so many ways when it comes to distraction is just when I recognize there's a distraction I'll be calm and then be gentle with yourself and just gently bring yourself back to focus on what was that oh the talents right God let's talk about talents so important now at the same time the catechism says something about this and it's really good so not only when you recognize distractions just calmly gently bring your attention back here but in catechism 27 29 it says this this I don't know if you've seen this is the catechism of the Catholic church it's it's it's a it's would recommend to set about hunting down distractions will be to fall into their trap when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart for a distraction reveals to us what we're attached to in this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us to resolutely offer him our hearts to be purified let's let's highlight what let's say here it says to set about hunting down distractions it would be to fall into their trap right so to be able to to say simply like I'm distracted by uh Britain's Got Talent all of a sudden whatever reason like wait Simon Cowell on that and like you know I need to find out I need to why am I thinking about this what's going on in my life I need to wait a second at the stop and assess I don't need to fall into the Trap I don't I don't need to hunt down every distraction in my life because that's to fall into their trap but it goes on to say something I think is really profound it says this when all that is necessary is to turn back our heart remember just that calm gentle turn back our heart to the Lord goes on to say for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to a distraction reveals to us what we're attached to and this is this is where we go to like next level stuff when it comes to prayer sometimes beginner level there's like the kind of the absolute rule I mean hey don't fall into the distractions trap don't give them any attention don't pay them no mind no not at all don't don't get distracted by the distraction just calmly gently get back to the Lord but the next level is wait a second if my distraction reveals what my heart is attached to it could be and this is important to know that this could be the case it could be the case that in prayer I attend to the distraction and ask the question why is this here or ask the question what does this reveal about my heart because if my heart's attached to this thing if I find myself let me think about this our mind will naturally tend to think about the things that we find most compelling all right well that's not always but a lot of times our mind will tend to those things that we we care about the most so if if you are someone who uh loves gaming or something or you love some other kind of sports or you love uh what's the thing it's a fantasy football or something like this and and you're in prayer and you find yourself thinking about gaming or you find yourself find yourself thinking about sports or find yourself thinking about your fantasy football team that's because that's those are things you really care about if you're in a relationship with someone and you're in love with them you might be in prayer thinking about them because why because that's what you really care about if you're in prayer and you're thinking about work well it reveals okay that's what I really care about if you're in prayer and you're thinking about money could be because that's what you really care about if you're in prayer thinking about your body or exercise it could be it could reveal that that's what you really really care about now to just simply like shut that down sometimes you might need to sometimes it's like okay that's fine that's there I don't need to think about that now that is merely a distraction it could be at times though this isn't a distraction this is revealing something to me this is revealing something to me about my own heart then man my heart belongs more to my work than it does to the Lord my heart belongs more to this is Obsession or or occupation with money or my body or my health or my fantasy football league then then it does anything else and maybe you want to attend that and say God do you want me to do something with this that's the simple thing again the first level first level I recognize the distraction calmly gently bring my attention back to the Lord but at times if it's persistent I realize this is revealing what my heart is attached to and I get to attend to it right just kind of examine and say okay I keep I keep thinking about whatever the thing is to bring that to the Lord and not to just okay I'm gonna focus on the thing but to take that and say this might be the focus of my prayer right now see what it doesn't do is it doesn't make the it doesn't say oh just look at look at the distraction chase down chase down the distraction attend the distraction it's attend to the distraction and realize that might be the real focus of your prayer where now I say Okay God I found myself being preoccupied with work or relationship or this argument I had or whatever the thing is and you bring that before the Lord because that's what's that's what's deepest in your heart so what the Lord wants to talk about with you what's deepest on your heart so keep these two things in mind on basic level to three things in mind on a basic level distractions are normal they're obstacles they're battles but you can do this if they're completely normal secondly when we recognize that we're being distracted to be calm about it and gently bring our attention back to the Lord but thirdly there are times when I have to attend to this and say okay God why is this here what is it that you want me to do with this and maybe what you what God wants you to do with this he's inviting you to do with this is take that distraction and allow it to be the thing that he and you you and he thank you both of you like a tend to and that becomes maybe the focus of your prayer Lord show me what to do with this distraction and that that but let that be the thing that makes your prayer even more honest that lets your prayer become even more deep thus your prayer become even more powerful because you're bringing this thing that's deep in your heart to the Lord of your heart our Lord Jesus Christ anyways that's what I got for today for all this here December sense my Ascension reasons my name is father Mike God bless [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 172,220

Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, fr. Mike, father mike, catholic advice, catholic inspiration, catholic motivation, fr. mike schmitz, fr. Mike schmidt, father mike schmitz, michael schmitz, fr. Mike advice, fr. Mike videos, distracted, distractions, distracted in prayer, distractions in prayer, distracted prayer, can't focus in prayer, how to focus while praying

Id: PCCBBmGxA30

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 04 2023