Formula for Deepening Prayer

I'm going to bump up my prayer routine. My hope, oviously, is to get some benifits from increasing the quantity of time spent in prayer and meditation. The question of benifits is probably one for another day. Sufice to say that I'm anticipating some benifits from it, and am resolved to do so.

I've had somewhat of a hard time finding an action plan for prayer time. Nobody seems to like to write down a to-do list of what to do in x number of minutes of prayer time. Looking at the big picture, it makes sense. Any writer on the topic would be hard pressed to make specific recommendations about what to do, since it will vary from person to person. Probably, for each person, it will vary quite a bit from year to year.

In any case, as a remedial case study, I'll try to present my adgnda and track it here to see how it goes.

1. Time allocation and commitment.

I'm starting by committing to 10 min a day, every day, for the next 90 days, until 4/12/08.*. This morning, 10 minutes didn't seem like a lot of time. But, this morning was my first day home from a three day retreat at a carmelite facility! So, after a weekend of meditation and prayer, 10 minutes seemed like too small a time period to get anything done. But, at some point in the next 90 days, I'm sure I'll be saying that 10 minutes a day is something that is really hard to do!

2. The meeting agenda

Hey, when I meet with my boss, I have an agenda. When I meet with anyone that's working on projects for me, I have an agenda. Heck, when my wife and I want to get any real decisions made, we set a time and have an agenda. So, why not have an agenda? So, here is my proposed agenda:

a. Opening prayers - These are some memorized prayers that I'll use, that I've been using for some time. Basically, they are the three prayers on this page. I'd like to eventually graduate to a rosary. But, let's face it, saying a rosary takes 15 to 20 minutes. I might get there - someday, maybee - but, not just yet.

b. Read some "input" - I like to word "input", which comes from a book written by my retreat leader (which, despite it's name, didn't give an outline this simple). He says that "input" is most likley a scripture, or a meditation book, or some other spitual writing. There's a fine line here about what will work. I think that some spiritual books are less dense and more narrative, and probably won't work. Other books area really dense with insight and would work well. For example, I don't think that "The Way of Perfection" would really work. She takes a bit of paper to get around to what she wants to say. On the other hand, "The Imitation Of Christ" of pretty dense with insight.

c. Reflect in silence. - This is a new skill for me. I've done some meditation by Budahist instruction. (Which, by the way I learned almost entirely at Wildmind.) But, this is a litle different. Here, you are supposed to reflect on the reading somewhat, but not be too active in the mind. So, it's very quiet time, but not so quiet that some reflection isn't happening. Make sense? No? Well, I'll try it for a bit. More on that later, I guess.

*Special thanks to Manager Tools for their discussion on goals. According to those guys, a goal is not a goal until it has a date. And, a date is defined as "a number between zero and 31 with one of the 12 months next to it." I love that.