We've all felt 'too busy to pray' many times

"I am too busy to pray.”  I know we have all felt that at many times and we have perhaps heard it from others.  St. Francis de Sales once said, “Every one of us needs half an hour of prayer a day, except when we are busy — then we need an hour.” 
This seems counterintuitive.  If I am too busy to pray for 30 minutes, then clearly I am too busy to pray even longer.  Sometimes we feel inundated with tasks that seem very important and which are certainly required of us.  When I feel overwhelmed I become very ineffective.  My mind races from thing to thing and I don’t seem to get anything done.  There is a spiraling cycle and I fall further and further behind.
Prayer is powerful in these moments for two reasons.  First, prayer helps us to see more clearly what is most important and ways for me to accomplish these tasks in the way the Lord desires.  Sometimes when I pray, the sense of being overwhelmed recedes and I see that while I have many tasks, they are manageable; not easy, just manageable.
Second, when I pray and ask the Lord for the strength and wisdom to accomplish the necessary tasks at hand, He sends His grace as an aid.  It is important to remember that the end result of my labor is not my responsibility.  Instead, I am to do the task or tasks that the Lord calls me to and then He takes care of the final product.  Mother Teresa once said, “I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful.”
Along those lines I would like to share a little prayer that I pray to myself many, many times.  “Lord, may my every success and my every failure bring glory to your name.”  I fail.  I fail often.  But, if the Lord can use my failures to bring about His will then it isn’t really a failure.
Let me give you a quick, little example of what I mean.  I was once at a Mass and the archbishop was the celebrant.  In attendance there were many priests and people involved in Catholic education.  After I received Communion I was meditating on the Passion of Jesus, specifically His falls.  As I was praying, the deacon who was reposing the Blessed Sacrament dropped the ciborium and consecrated hosts were strewn all around the sanctuary.  I am sure the deacon was mortified and embarrassed.  But, for me it was a blessing.  When those hosts went flying I pondered, “Jesus falls a fourth time.”  It was a blessed moment of prayer.
Let us entrust our efforts to the Lord and not despair when we feel overwhelmed or if we feel like failures.
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected] 
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