I do love that my parish has a dedicated Holy Hour for praying for vocations. Plus that each time they display pictures of two of the seminarians with their names.
Still, I use to avoid these monthly Friday night events for rather dumb reasons. One reason is that part of the hour has the recitation of vocal prayers. Usually, my mind is more involved in recitation and not praying. If I had my druthers I would prefer to just pray for these intentions and do some spiritual reading in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I have the same problem with public recitations of the Rosary and Divine Mercy. I was just not engaged in praying.
So my thinking was all about me and what I get out of it.
So I am working on changing this mindset. One by realizing that communal prayer is a good thing in and of itself. Another that as somebody who loves St. Teresa of Avila, I should be able to get through my thick skull that vocal prayers are not second class prayers. St. Teresa certainly writes about this a good deal concerning some of her nuns who had advanced to a contemplative life reciting such prayers.
What I was complaining about was my own lack and unwillingness to see if I could change the situation through effort. That I should learn to do them with devotion as far as possible. So instead of turning away from these opportunities, I am now engaging in such opportunities to pray in public. You can only get better at what you do with repetition.
photo credit: shaggy359 John Kyrle’s hands via photopin (license)
