DISTRACTIONS AT PRAYER

Distractions at Prayer

Prayer demands a certain amount of external quietness and detachment. A noisy environment is a hindrance to prayer. The internal condition for prayer is characterised by attention, reverence, trust, and perseverance. External attention is secured by the avoidance of disturbing activities that block the mind’s positive application to the meaning of the text or formula or to the divine truth or even the divine presence. Such internal attention should preferably be actual, that is to say, it should aim at factual, on- the-spot attention to the content of prayer or God’s presence. However, it is sufficient to have a virtual attention, i.e. a persistent intention to pray despite momentary, involuntary distractions. For vocal prayer it is sufficient that attention is directed towards God in a general way, as it is generally not possible to attend to the meaning of every word we say. True devotion and the intention to pray are not destroyed by involuntary distractions. Besides, the state of external composure and the continued recitation of prayer formulas are apt to lead the mind back to conversing with God. In themselves, involuntary distractions are not sinful. Sinful are voluntary or deliberate distractions or they are at least an imperfection. Being voluntary, they cut into the intention to pray and thereby imply irreverence to God. A deliberately induced distraction or fantasy can well be gravely sinful if it leads to a mistake in confecting a sacrament, since the latter can thereby be exposed to invalidity. We are distracted because we are still attached to created things and to accustomed images, or the mind is preoccupied with even legitimate concerns.

            The problem of distractions at prayer is a perennial one. The radical cure is self-denial and a deeper attachment to Jesus Christ. One can also transform distractions to the good. Distractions are irritating and ubiquitous insects that one can apparently do nothing about. However, we can not only render distractions harmless but also possibly make them useful matter for prayer!  For example, the thought of hurts suffered from people can make one recall the sarcasm and venomous remarks of the Pharisees and lead him to noble and benign motivations. Pleasant distractions would make one think of something joyful in the life of Jesus and how he wants us to be happy with a joy complete (cf. 1 Jn 1, 4). Present worries and future anxieties need not weigh down a person who can refer these to the carrying of the Cross or to Christ weeping for his people. The agony of Gethsemane, the scourging and the cross can replace the oppressive memory of past sins. The Gethsemane sadness can be lit up by the hopeful dawn of Easter, while the spirit-draining weight of discouragement can send one marching to Emmaus and to the joyous recognition at the breaking of bread. Like insects, distractions are God’s creatures. “Everything God created is good; nothing is to be rejected when it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by God’s word and by prayer” (1 Tim 4, 4). “Welcoming these uninvited visitors and joining hands with them in prayer, readily including these trifling items of our life (those especially we view as unimportant) will enable us to integrate in Christ everything that is genuinely human. His light will fall on hidden corners of our life, we’ll muster greater strength for our daily struggles; even humdrum occupations, dispositions of all sorts will become the incarnating matter of our life of grace. Christ will share in all our feelings, will be present at our games, will accompany us on picnics; he will be at our side when working, playing, resting; with us he will be thinking of the friends we fondly love, and he will share our dread of persons whom we would not meet” (Gasper M. Koelman, Sparks,Pune 1976 p. 110).