Morning and Evening Sung Prayers

I have never been able to get into the habit of daily, prayerful contemplation. Everything else in my life is part of a routine. My morning routine I almost have down to the minute. I have a cup of Irish Breakfast tea every day at 10 am and 2 pm. I walk my dog on the same route four times a day.

Which is not to say I don't pray. I pray in the shower, when I'm doing dishes, when I'm walking the dog. Anytime my body is otherwise occupied. I used to pray before bed, but kept falling asleep before I would finish.

This has been bugging me for sometime. And I've tried different things. The closest I got was when I set myself to read the Bible from cover to cover sophomore year of college. Over the years  I had read the Bible several times, just very piecemeal. I had a book of daily prayers influenced by Celtic Christianity which I like very much, but it was very short and didn't adjust for time of year. During Lent this past year I tried to take up the discipline of the Hours. But my graduate student schedule meant that I ended up reading several of the hours together, which seemed to defeat the purpose. And it felt weird not having anyone to do the call and response with.

So I've decided to start over, and take smaller steps, starting with something that I can learn to do any time, anywhere. I'll begin with morning and evening sung prayers, since music and lyrics have always had a habit of staying in my head well. I've picked "St. Patrick's Breastplate" for my morning prayer. It seems a good way to start the day, I already know the tune and about half the words. I like the idea of claiming God's power to protect me as I start out the day, probably because I am a worrier by nature. I'm starting out with "Abide with me: fast falls the eventide" for my evening prayer, but may have to change if I can't stop crying.

This may not sound like quiet contemplation, but its hard to get my mind to shut up. Doing something like this helps calm it down, temporarily. I'm hoping I can use this to work up to a time of actual extended contemplation.

If anyone is out there reading this, I would love to know how you manage to make time for this kind of thing. Not just physically, but mentally.

~PhysicsGal