We all know how important prayer is, yet it seems so difficult to find time for it.
Pope Francis has been appealing to parents to give time and attention to teach their children how to pray, yet he recognises the challenges which parents face.
“We know well that family time is a complicated and crowded time, occupied and preoccupied. It is always little, it is never enough, there are so many things to do. One who has a family soon learns to resolve an equation that not even the great mathematicians know how to resolve: within the 24 hours there is twice that number! There are mothers and fathers who could win the Nobel Prize for this. Of 24 hours they make 48: I do not know how they do it but they move and do it! There is so much work in a family!”
In his catechesis on the Family, Pope Francs has urged parents to give time to this important part of family life.
“The spirit of prayer gives back time to God, it steps away from the obsession of a life that is always lacking time, it rediscovers the peace of necessary things, and discovers the joy of unexpected gifts.
Perhaps we need to ask if we truly love God, as he asks us to, with all our heart, and all our mind and all our strength. For the heart of prayer is the love of God, the source of our life, who constantly “caresses” us with his own love. A heart filled with the love of God can make even a silent thought or a small gesture of devotion a moment of prayer. The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray, to call God our Father, and to grow daily in his love. Our families need to ask for the gift of the Spirit! Through prayer, even in the busiest times, we give time back to God, we find the peace that comes from appreciating the important things, and we encounter the joy of God’s unexpected gifts. Through daily prayer may our homes become, like the house of Martha and Mary, places where Jesus always finds a warm welcome.”
