Year of Prayer - Month 2

November is here and it's time for me to focus on a different form of prayer for the month.  But first, a quick analysis of how my Rosary October went.

I started off October full of goals and enthusiasm to pray five decades of the Rosary everyday but midway through the first week I was already falling short of that goal.  Since I didn't want to fall into my all-too-common perfection-or-inaction M.O., I tried not to overreact.  Instead, I reminded myself that even a decade of a Rosary is better than none at all and I pushed forward.  I utilized several different resources to help me along my way including my Rosary CD and the Laudate app for my smart phone.  I found that, while my Rosary CD was very helpful, if I listened while I was driving, I was often too distracted by traffic (silly me) to focus on my prayer as much as I would've liked.  Evidently, I'm old school because the tools that were the biggest help to me last month were the Rosary beads I received at my First Communion and a Rosary booklet I got at a Catholic bookstore many years ago for about $2! 

By the end of the month, even though I fell far short of perfection, I found myself going to the Rosary more and more as part of my daily routine.  I had established a habit, of sorts, which was a big goal of my Year of Prayer.  Making prayer a part of my daily life instead of just a part of desperate times and letting that regular prayer draw me closer into communion and communication with my Lord was my goal.  So, I'm calling Month One of my Year of Prayer a success. 

I know this journey has only just begun but I think I'm on the right track and that's a good thing!

Now, on to November-

As the holidays start to ramp up, prayer will be even more important to help me maintain focus and sanity.  At the same time, I need to be realistic about the demands on my time.  So, because November is a time to focus on gratitude for our blessings, I'm going to spend this month thanking God for all I've been given.  I'm going to try to dial back my prayer requests (with the exception of intercessory prayer for friends and family) and focus on the abundance of what I already have.  I'll be using a mixture of formal prayers and spontaneous prayers throughout the month.  Here are a few lovely prayers of thanksgiving I found at AmericanCatholic.org that I'll be using.  If you have any prayers you want to share with me, drop me a line and tell me about them.  Once again, I would love to have you join me on this spiritual journey.  In fact, I would be most thankful.  (See, it's working already!)

Check out more of my thoughts on gratitude and the environment in my November column on CatholicMom.com today around 10 am Pacific Time.  Hope to see you there!

Blessings,
Laura