Prayer - A Plan for Beginners

1. Minimum requirements of prayer

The two most important daily prayers are the daily Rosary and the Morning Offering. These should be consistent in your daily prayer life. Never let go of these two exercises. 

Rosary

It is hard to imagine anyone not committed to a morning offering and a daily rosary.

Say the rosary every day.

Morning Offering

If we do not start every day in prayer we will be in effect destining our day to selfishness.

If you have a Smartphone, download an app called "Streaks." Everyday that you say your morning offering and pray your Rosary, tap the calendar day to check the day off, this way you will see your consistency and it will give you motivation to carry on even when you do not feel like it. If you do not have a Smartphone simply use a real calendar and X off days that you have accomplished your morning offering and Rosary.

2. The Three Hail Mary's Devotion

Once you are faithful to these two crucial exercises you can begin to add additional prayers to your day. A most powerful devotion is the Three Hail Mary's. This is most effective especially in the area of attaining purity and protection from all mortal sin. Special graces are given to souls who practice the Three Hail Mary's.

Say three Hail Mary's in the morning and three at night with the invocation: "Mary my mother, preserve me from mortal sin this day/night." Do not forget this little invocation. 

3. Moving forward

Once you are faithful in the above tasks, add these spiritual exercises to your routine. Do not simply remain in your current spiritual state, always be moving forward:

• Spend a few minutes kneeling in silence each day in front of a Crucifix, image of Christ or ideally, in front of Jesus Himself in the Blessed Sacrament to seek His will.

• Begin the practice of mental prayer. For more information on how to enter into mental prayer please click here.

Do not over complicate this process and do not take on too much at once. Begin with the morning offering and Rosary and then build upon that. Pray to Our Lady to teach you how to pray and to give you the discipline necessary to develop and maintain a fruitful and deep prayer life. The Holy Spirit will begin to invite you to deeper levels of prayer. Once you are faithful to the concrete necessities (morning offering, daily Rosary, Three Hail Mary's devotion, mental prayer, silent adoration) then you will be able to hear and answer the call to contemplation. 

Take peace and invoke the help of the Holy Spirit, your Guardian Angel, Our Lady, St. Joseph, and your patrons. Hold fast to your exercises, and be patient with yourself: remember that you cannot learn to run before you learn to walk.