Hack Your Surroundings to Enable More Opportunities for Prayer
“It is an old custom of the saints of God to have some little prayers ready and to be frequently darting them up to heaven during the day, lifting their minds to God out of the mire of this world. He who adopts this plan will obtain great fruits with little pain” (St. Phillip Neri).
Have you ever thought of prayer hacking? Not “hack” as in using code to gain unauthorized access to data, but a life hack—finding small moments that can inspire prayer and greater union with God and our spiritual role models, the saints.
Think of where in your life you spend a few moments or more. Is it at your desk, at the kitchen sink, or in a book? You can infuse prayer into each of these places. The more time you have with God, listening, conversing, and taking refuge in Him, the better.
Here are a few places where prayer could enter your day (but I invite you to brainstorm and experiment with what works for you):
Bookmarks with prayers are an easy DIY project. They can remind you to pray before or after reading and to read with intention. You can also easily use prayer cards to hold your place in a book.
Incorporate prayers into your planner, either written on certain days (maybe before a big presentation at work!) or on the borders of the pages.
A mirror—whether where you get ready in the morning or a personal mirror in your office—can be a great space for a prayer. You can write a prayer yourself on the mirror using lipstick or an Expo marker, or you can purchase a window cling from a Catholic artist.
Kitchen rosaries help you keep track of the rosary between interruptions. Many women keep them by their sink.
Set alarms on your phone with reminders to pray. They could be for specific times each day, like praying the Divine Mercy chaplet at 3:00 p.m., or for feast days.
Sacrifice beads are a tangible way to remind yourself to commit to a certain number of sacrifices per day.
I tried praying the Divine Mercy chaplet at 3:00 p.m. each day for a week, and I found that it not only brought me peace but also refocused the rest of my afternoon work. A less effective hack for me was having feast days on a paper calendar I never looked at. I think a more effective approach would be putting them on my phone calendar.
Of course, it’s important to make sure that prayer doesn’t become another box to check off and that we aren’t making only a half-hearted, multitasking attempt at prayer. Rather, we should truly enter into prayer, whether that means giving thanks, asking for an intercession, or giving our anxieties to God. Inviting Him into moments throughout each day is a beautiful way to open the door to the Holy Spirit, give thanks, and receive grace and clarity.
Savanna Polasek is a nonprofit communications specialist, freelance writer, and creator of Memoir Ink. She is a Catholic convert and lives with her charming husband in Austin, Texas. In her free time she enjoys exploring Texas, listening to Catholic podcasts, reading, and writing fiction. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.