Trigger warning: I am a Catholic (a cradle to grave Catholic at that) but my church never taught me how to pray. I can recite lists of prayers for any occasion and I pray the rosary often with my mother. Recently though while saying the rosary I realized while I repeated the same prayer again and again I was not thinking of God or the words; I was thinking about friends, past events, or future dreams. As I would wrap up the closing prayers, my mother would thank me for taking the time to pray with her and that she was happy for my close relationship with God. But I knew my relationship was far from close to Christ even if it looked as so from the outside.
To say a prayer and pray a prayer, I have learned, are two very different things. I am sure I may sound redundant to some, of course if you are just chanting prayers with no sincerity it is pointless, but my point is sometimes I, we, you, do not even recognize that we are mindless in prayer. And now to sound even more backwards, I have found that being mindless is what I need in prayer; to say nothing, to not distract myself with written prayers or my worries or petitions, I am closest to God when I clear my mind of thought.
To think of absolutely nothing is much easier said than done. I usually last around a minute before thoughts come seeping into my head clouding God’s voice. I guess this could be considered meditating, call it whatever you like, but I think it is important to take time in your prayer life to listen to God. As much as I wish ‘God’s voice’ was bold and loud and clear and actual spoken all the time it is not always this way but it does not mean it doesn’t happen, but it shouldn’t discourage us from changing the focus of our prayers. I now take time to not only voice my worries and triumphs to God but, to let Him also speak to me to guide me and my thoughts, for my prayer to no longer be centered around myself.
Not to try and sound trendy or catch a larger audience, but I truly believe this kind of no prayer ‘prayer’ meditative style is better adapted to millennials. Speaking for millennials: we love challenges, we like to prove the older generations wrong, we are strong and devoted to individual thought, and at times resist tradition just because it is tradition and we feel disconnected to its original roots and meaning because of the degradation of time. So I call you to let go of the reigns of your thought while in church, to understand the prayers you recite have power and great meaning, but only when you are God-centered, when your prayer no longer is there to follow the ‘schedule’ of your church service or your needs and thoughts, but for the thoughts of God.
It is so much easier to read the Bible or religious text or recite a prayer than to clear your mind and sit in silence doing absolutely NOTHING; it is a millennial’s nightmare! By no means am I shaming millennials as being lack-luster in religion and fading out because of the restrictions of structured religion, in fact quite the opposite, if you are like me I have been experiencing the same structured church service since I can remember and it can be comforting knowing all the words and what to do next and when it will end but I challenge us millennials to be more mindful in prayer by clearing our minds and letting God some time and space in our busy heads.
