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How can you keep your prayer life lively in Ordinary Time?

Saturday after Epiphany, 9 January 2021

In today’s reflection, Waiting in Joyful Hope author Michelle Francl-Donnay reflects on John 3:29b-30, Preface VI of the Sundays in Ordinary Time, Gaudium et Spes (43), and the presence of God in laundry and photocopying.

In the comments section below, share your own response to today’s scripture, Francl-Donnay’s reflection, or the accompanying meditation prompt.

3 thoughts on “How can you keep your prayer life lively in Ordinary Time?”

  1. I keep my prayer life lively during ordinary time by trying to recognize the Presence of Christ in more and more things and people throughout the day. God is everywhere and it is easy for me to miss Him. How is God showing Himself Herself in each person I meet? In each conversation? Since God is with me now is He/She sitting next to me or part of the very air I am breathing? He/She is everywhere in beauty, in those who are suffering and in the poor. God please let me always look for and see you.

  2. The Church has so many spiritual treasures to support the faith life of all sorts of people. Over the past couple years, I have tried out practices and devotions that never appealed to me before and found something worth keeping in almost everything. But right now I am feeling cautious about seeking spiritual novelty for the sake of novelty. If God offers me a lively prayer life, I will be glad to accept it. But like Marge, I think I will focus on trying to see God in the sparrow at my window, and hear him in the voice of the cashier at the grocery store, and in cultivating endurance.

  3. The return to ordinary time in our home occurs after my son’s birthday, next week. The decorations are packed up and we celebrate one last time before Easter. Then, I breathe. This year, however, after having reflected all this time, “He must increase. I must decrease.” St. John the Baptist’s words will remain with me because I will repeat them daily. That mighty, tiny formula is my answer to whatever is on my heart. Shift my focus from anxieties to Him, and they shrink. Hand over my concerns into the Hands that are large enough to hold all, and I will be able to return to doing His Will. Fr. Mark used to say this phrase all the time and a string of rebuttals filled my head. Blessedly, today they are gone. Keep it simple, Sherry.

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