OBSTACLES TO PRAYER

1. NOT BEING SUFFICIENTLY MOTIVATED  Need for personal commitment to prayer  Need for self-effort  It is a longing of an individual through personal training  Our training such as novitiate are only a help, but need for personal effort through personal motivation  Need to renew the personal motivation every day.

2. DEPERSONALIZING PRAYER  We may pray as a community… as a parish… as a particular group, but what is the personal involvement?  What is my personal contribution?  Because salvation is ultimately a personal story.

3. SECULARISING PRAYER  We pray the way we live…  If our life is worldly, our prayer too will be worldly.  Our secular tendencies, attitudes will be manifested in our prayer moments… because prayer is a personal relationship with God.  Impersonal prayer is, when prayer becomes an event, an obligation and a programme to be done.

4. NOT DEVOTING ONESELF DEEPLY TO PRAYER  Our life is a devotion, a personal offering to God.  It is a personal sacrifice to the Lord  This sacrifice is possible only if we put ourselves to prayer…  … and put prayer into our lives.

5. NOT BEING INTERESTED IN THE PROGRESS  Ask yourself… how you prayed as a child, an adolescent, a novice, a young religious…  How I grown from my childish way of praying?  How do I rate myself?  Have I grown and developed a method for myself? Have I grown in my interest in prayer? Do I reap better fruits?

6. NOT NOURISHING FAITH  Prayer should give hope in what we do… should give meaning to the life we have chosen.  Should help us in our trails, temptations…  A person of prayer is a person of hope.  Prayer ought to be a source of encouragement, strength and a tool of perseverance.

7. NEGLECTING THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST  We ought to learn from Jesus’ experience of prayer as he prayed as a human being.  We lean from his search for solitude, quiet moments— a time of aloneness.  His prayer is a powerful moments of expression of his humanity… his way of overcoming trails.  His humanity gives us new impetus for our own prayer and struggles.

8. PUTTING QUANTITY ABOVE QUALITY  Quality is always better than quantity in most human situation.  Few moments well utilized for God, is better than many years uselessly spent. We have many lessons from the lives of young saints.  Often spending many hours dreaming in the church is only creating deception.

9. NEGLECTING SUBSTANTIAL PRAYER TIME  Prayer needs sacrifice of time.  Need to give quality time and be consistent in prayer moments, those moments to be priority moments.  When we miss prayer time, do we miss something?

10. SEPARATING PRAYER FROM TOTALITY OF LIFE  “When did Don Bosco not pray?”  Spirit of St. Francis de Sales’ prayer of daily life.  St. Francis of Assisi oneness with Nature  Active contemplatives…  Salesian spirit of prayer

11. SEPARATING PRAYER FROM THE WELL BEING  We draw our energy from Jesus… Eucharist, Blessed Mother, our Salesian Spirit.  Energy that comes from other sources are not guaranteed.

12. NOT PRAYING BECAUSE ONE IS UNWORTHY  Salesian prayer is joyful… comes from our spirit of celebration of life.  It’s creativity, joyfulness invites young people to join us in prayer.  Our prayer ought to be guilt free prayer.  “Save us Lord from sour faced saints.”

13. DISCOURAGEMENT  It is like Samuel listening to the Lord… “Speak Lord, Your servant is listening.”  Prayer is an art.  Prayer needs perseverance and daily struggle.

14. MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS BY EXPERIENCE  To be with you one day is like 1000 years.  Mastery of prayer and spiritual life for that matter does not necessarily go with age and years spend in religious life.  Our effectiveness, satisfaction in prayer is based on our closeness with the Lord.

15. NOT PUTTING SENSATIONS AND FEELINGS IN THEIR PROPER PLACES  Need to pray at all times… not only in the moment of need, moment of agony, moment of crisis. Jesus prayed all the time and everyday.  There is no special requirement for prayer…

16. CONFUSING PRAYER WITH NATURAL CONTEMPLATION  Our pensive nature, our creative skill, our poetical moments will not lead us to prayer or contemplation.  Only our love for the Lord will lead us to prayer and will help us to meet him.  Our deep desire will lead us to contemplation.

17. NEGLECTING ONE’S LIFE STYLE  Prayer goes with our life style, the way we life, the way we treat others, the way we are hospitable to people with our means, time and abilities.  Humility, docility, friendly nature will create a necessary conduciveness for prayer.

18. NOT MAINTAINING TWO FORMS OF PERYER  Need for communal and personal ways of prayer.  Our personal prayer should be supported by community prayer.  We cannot be islands of prayer.  We should not be satisfied with community moments of prayer. Community prayer will not make much sense without personal prayer.

19. NOT LETTING OTHER PEOPLE HELP  We need mentors in prayer… we need examples in prayer.  We need spiritual directors for successful prayer life.  We need the support of confessors. We need to go for Renticonto.  We need to regular spiritual reading and spiritual get-together for prayer.

20. EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF PRAYER IMPROPERLY  Not to become complacent with our prayer— quality and quantity of prayer.  Need to evaluate our prayer and prayerfulness through regular examination of conscience, confessions, spiritual directions, recollections, and annual retreats.  Be willing to look at the condition of our soul honestly.