Are nuns prayer professionals?

Sister Rejane  
This Random Nun Clip is brought to you by A Nun's Life Ministry.

Sister Maxine  
our first question comes in from Susan in Ontario, Canada. And Susan writes, "I think of sisters as, among other things, prayer professionals. I find that prayer is not coming naturally to me. When I sit quietly and reflect, my mind wanders every which way." And Susan continues. "I like to walk and when I'm out walking, I reflect on things and hope for a resolution. For instance, I have a young niece with a five-year-old daughter, and the niece has breast cancer answer. So I hope for her recovery. But that's not really prayer, is it? When sisters sit in church and contemplation, what strategies do they use to keep themselves focused and on task? Thank you." So, first of all, Susan, we want to say that we're keeping you and your niece and the whole family in our prayers for healing. It must be a difficult time.

Sister Shannon  
It must be. Let's start there, shall we, Max? We were talking earlier about the questions that had come in. And one of the things that occurred to me is when Susan said, is that prayer, or isn't it, that she hopes that her niece will recover. My first thought was, your very desire for healing for your niece is itself a prayer that God would hear, and God would honor, God would listen to. So it's coming naturally out of your heart, what your hopes are, what your dreams are, and in this case, especially what your hope is for your niece. So absolutely, that's a form of prayer.

Sister Maxine  
And when you mentioned, Susan, that you're out walking, and then you compare that to when sisters are in church and contemplation. Let's talk a little bit about the location of prayer, if we want to call it that. So to be out, walking in prayer -- you know, if we think about prayer as that relationship with God, that unfolds as all of our relationships do:  you spend time you do things together, you go for walks with your friend. So I think walking is a great place for contemplation.

Sister Shannon  
You're surrounded by the beauty that is a reflection of God's face: the sky, the trees, the grass, the people that you pass. All of that has the ability to raise your mind and your heart to think about the power and the presence of God in your life.

Sister Maxine  
And as you describe that, it is really like an immersion, not a distraction. You know, you see the birds flying around, and all that -- be careful not to be too judgmental, that somehow in prayer, we think we got to block everything out. I don't think we do.

Sister Shannon  
I don't know who taught me this when I was a little kid, maybe one of my teachers or maybe my mom. But whenever I hear sirens, for example, I stop. And in my heart, I pray for whomever is in need of that ambulance or fire truck or police car that happens to be going by. It's a way of integrating life into who you are, and what's happening and bringing your prayer to everything that happens. And that's just a small example. But I think you pray in your car. Sometimes there are people that I want to say bad things to, but I bless them instead. [laughter] That takes some discipline to be able to do that. But there is a sense in which if you are aware that you were walking in God's presence all the time, then you can make all the events that happen in your life a part of your prayer experience.

Sister Maxine  
It's like creating that disposition of prayer.

Sister Shannon  
That's exactly it.

Sister Maxine  
To where it's not just a thing you do, it's a way of being. I have a I have a friend, when she drives down the road and sees some poor little creature who had an unfortunate encounter with an automobile, will say a prayer for it. You know, it's just a natural part of her life to see all occasions for prayer and to just go ahead and go there.

Sister Shannon  
Yeah. Well, let's talk a little bit about where you pray, because that's another help, I think. Sometimes establishing a regular place in your home, where you can sit quietly and reflect, is an important thing to do. I was sharing with Sister Max that the leadership team of my congregation, we are going up to a lake house for a week for our planning. And I want us to gather on the back porch which overlooks the lake -- so it's already a beautiful place -- and I've assembled, with the help of our art curator, some statues and candles and some beautiful things that sort of set the ambiance for our prayer. And I shared with our congregational minister, I don't want us to work in the same place where we set our prayer in the morning to sort of establish the mood. Yes, can you pray at work? Absolutely. But for this special week, I wanted us to find a spot. We know when we enter into that room that we're entering into reflection that God is present, that we fill our hearts and our spirits with God's presence. And then we bring that into the work for the day. It's very effective to have a little space.

Sister Maxine  
I would agree with that. And it's not that you can be in that space all the time to pray. But there are times, like ritual times, that would be important. I can't help but think like, you know how in the parish, there's people who go and they sit in the same pew, every single time. And some people might be like, "Oh, they think that pew is theirs." Well, maybe that's one of the functions of it. It's like having their little prayer space there.

Sister Shannon  
Part of my morning ritual, I use our family room, because we don't have a chapel in our house. But I settle into the chair where I'm most comfortable. I tell Alexa to play some meditative music, and she's very accommodating. And I just find that place, that sitting there automatically brings God to my mind, into my presence, and it makes a difference.

Sister Maxine  
I do the same sort of thing. When I go out for walks, like Susan was saying, it puts me in that frame of mind, in that space, that however the prayer unfolds is going to be okay.

Sister Shannon  
So bringing music to it, bringing a candle, those kinds of things can be really helpful -- not that those props are necessary, but the Catholic Church recognizes them as sacramentals in our life, things that put us in mind of the presence of God. And in terms of prayer, there's all kinds of forms of prayer, right? There are the more what we would call rote prayers. The prayer we say before meals, the Hail Mary, the Our Father. That doesn't diminish them, but they have become so much a part of us that we have them memorized and they come right from our heart. We might be a person who prays the rosary regularly. So we have the more pious practice that's meditative and reflective. We might be the kind of person that says novenas, or other forms of regular prayer to the saints for their intercession or to God. And also, the ultimate prayer, of course, is the Eucharist, so when we gather for liturgy.

Sister Maxine  
You know, you mentioned in the setting, like having candles and different things. Do you ever find those distracting? Because Susan is saying, she's not sure how she feels, you know, the prayer isn't natural, and she might get distracted by things around her.

Sister Shannon  
I guess I don't because I do the same thing every day. You know, I light the same candle or use the same Bible. So I guess I never think about that as a distraction. But I could be distracted by the other things that are in the family room, right? For example, my phone could be a distraction to me. So if it buzzes, and I've just gotten a text, or I've just gotten an email, do I draw my attention away from my prayer time and open my phone, which takes me to a whole nother place oftentimes. Do I wait till my prayer time is complete, and then attend to my phone? I don't know. Sometimes I leave it in my bedroom so I'm not distracted. Sometimes I bring it with me because I know something might be coming up that I need to attend to. So I think you have to judge for yourself, what are those natural distractions that are part of your life?

Sister Maxine  
You mentioned that the thing of the routine to get started kind of helps you -- it's kind of that entry point. You know, you light your candle, you pick up your Bible, that would help too, to kind of give you an entry point into it. And I think, for me, like how I recover from distraction -- even if it happens throughout the time where I think I'm praying. I mean, the point is to keep coming back to it, sometimes bring that to prayer. And sometimes, I feel like I'm called to just get into it. Maybe the distraction is my prayer. Maybe it's where my prayer is supposed to be going and I just am refusing.

Sister Shannon  
So, Sister Max, are you a prayer professional?

Sister Maxine  
Am I a prayer professional? [laughs] Well, I mean, there's hallmarks of it, I suppose. Like, there's dedication, and there's discipline, and I try to be accountable to myself in some way, shape or form. I don't get paid for prayer. [laughter] So not professional in that way.

Sister Shannon  
Different kind of payment.

Sister Maxine  
Yeah, different kind of payment! You know, I guess I've never thought of it as a prayer professional because I think we all are called to pray. You know, If I compare myself like, to a writer. I've been a professional writer since I was very young. And the one thing I have learned is that I have always more to learn. So I think humility is part of that. I think the same is in my prayer life. You know, do I think I have made progress? I sure hope so. It feels like it some days, but would I stand up and say I'm a prayer professional? I don't think I would. I'm always, hopefully, getting better -- at least always attending to it.

Sister Shannon  
And trying to grow. And if you bring a kind of professionalism to prayer, you look for data and immediate results and ways of measuring and all those kinds of things that we bring to a professional situation. And prayer isn't always functioning like that. There's so much heart that's a part of what we bring there. And so it's not measurable in the same way. I would say, I have grown in my ability to pray and to spend time with God and to enter into deep conversation with God, to even just spontaneously pray -- I think that that has really grown in me, because the relationship I have with God has grown. If that makes me a prayer professional, then yeah.

Sister Maxine  
[laughter] And Susan, when you talk about thinking of sisters, as prayer professionals, I think you should not discount yourself as someone who may be -- in your terminology -- a prayer professional, someone who is dedicated to prayer -- it sounds like you are -- who's developing proficiency in the relationship with God, and growing that relationship. You know, I think that we have to remember, we each have that capacity.  

Sister Shannon  
That's right.

Sister Maxine  
Like, I might look at my sisters, my IHM sisters who have been sisters for 80 years and think, "Oh, my goodness, there's a prayer professional!" But really, they're on that journey, just like I am.

Sister Shannon  
That is true. Well, Susan, thank you for this question. It gave us the opportunity to talk richly about the notion of prayer.

Sister Maxine  
And again, we'll keep your niece and the whole family in our prayers.

Sister Rejane  
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This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.