How much time should we devote to prayer?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church invites the faithful to regularity in prayer:
“The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year.” (No. 2720). So, the question can be asked: how much time should be devoted to prayer? That depends on several parameters, which we will list in this article. At the end of this reading, we invite you to discover other great questions about Christian life.

Your life circumstances

What is your life situation? Are you a priest, a clergyman, or a layman?

In the first case, priests must “perform the Liturgy of the Hours every day according to the proper and approved liturgical books” (Code of Canon Law, Canon No. 276). Men and women of the clergy are generally bound by the same commitment. Monks have a more pronounced commitment than priests and other clergy, since their lives are devoted to prayer. They can pray up to 7 services per day, including a night service.

A baptized person is somewhat required to worship God on Sunday by participating in Mass. In addition, as a priest through baptism, they also have to find time in their life to make life a liturgical action, by granting themselves times of prayer (prayer, lectio divina, liturgy of the hours, etc.).

Your time

The time to give to prayer also depends simply on your time.

Are you retired? Engaged in professional work? If so, do you work 35 hours a week, 50 hours, 60 hours? It is obvious that a business leader or a farmer who works 60 hours a week will not have as much time as a person who works 35 hours, even if we can find small moments to pray during work, or make our work a form of prayer.

In addition, a mother raising her three children alone will not necessarily have the time to go to a prayer group an evening per week.

Your priorities

How much time you feel you have to give to prayer is also a matter of priorities and discipline. If we have an emergency, we find ways to make time. So it always seems possible to find time to pray, even a little. While work and family responsibilities obviously mean that it is not possible to devote 30 minutes a day to prayer, taking 5 or 10 minutes is already a good thing. And someone who prays a little each day will start to make the prayer into something stable. Regularity in prayer is important: perhaps it is better to pray every day for ten minutes, than only once a week for 1 hour.

Your level of advancement in faith

The time to give to prayer also depends simply on your level of advancement in faith.

If you’re new to the Christian faith and beginning a new path in the Church, your rhythm of prayer will not be the same as a person, who has been going to Mass every Sunday for 30 years, and who is a member of a school of prayer with the Community of the Laity in Carmel (OCDs).

Case 1 : Are you new to the Christian faith? A convert? A catechumen? Are you in a process of returning to faith?

Case 2 : Do you already have prayer experience? If so, since when? Do you currently have a life of prayer? Are you affiliated with a spirituality? If so, contemplative, charismatic? Are you affiliated with a Third Order? As a layman, are you bound by a commitment to prayer?

These are all cases and questions to ask that can help determine the time to give to prayer.

Your rhythm in your relationship with Christ

The question of when to pray depends also on your personal relationship with Christ: do you tend to pray mainly when you feel the need, or to pray every day, regardless of the situation in your life?

To reflect on your personal rhythm of prayer, talk about it with someone who already has a certain life of prayer, such as a priest, a spiritual guide, or any other baptized person.

For example, you can set up a life of prayer by starting slowly and gradually increasing, for example: 5 minutes a day to start: e.g. rosary, prayer of Jesus, Ignatian rereading. Then, increase your duration, with 15 minutes, 20 minutes, even 30 minutes a day: for example, add lectio divina, reading spiritual texts, then prayer.

Let's learn to pray regularly with Hozana

Hozana, the social network for prayer, offers you a ton of options to develop a life of prayer. For example, discover communities to pray every other day with your guardian angel, to receive a different prayer every day, or a prayer to Saint Joseph, and many others.