I have a confession to make. I haven’t prayed the Rosary regularly this Lent and I’m not off to a good start this Easter either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not abandoning Rosary prayer. I still love it and see the value of praying it every day. However, lately, I only manage to get through a mystery or two every day. In this time when I should increase my prayer, I’m actually praying less. Why?
Like many people, I thought that sheltering in place was going to give me more time to pray, read, and learn. I thought I could finally tackle the growing pile of books and tasks that I normally “didn’t have time for.” But the reality is that I have less time and energy to pray.
Normally, I stopped by my church after dropping my kids off at school to pray the Rosary. But with the kids studying from home and requiring my wife and me to coordinate their lesson plans, I lost my convenient prayer routine. Trying to pray throughout the day is difficult as I’m constantly wrangling kids, work, and home life. By the time I get some “alone time,” I’m so tired that I just want to turn my brain off and watch video clips.
So like the prodigal son, I need to realize that I need to come back “home.” In this case, I need re-establish my prayer routine. It may not be the same or as convenient as my usual routine, but we are living in unusual times. I’m sure many of us find ourselves in a similar situation. Now is the time to double our efforts in prayer.
I know that many of us think that once things get back to normal, we can resume our normal prayer routine. But that’s backward thinking. We actually need to resume our prayers now and ask God to return our world back to normal. Actually, now is a good time to ask God to elevate us to a new normal — one of increased faith and prayer. But we have to ask. As the Gospel tells us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8)