How A Year of Prayer Changed My Spiritual Life

"Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains." - St. John Vianney

Over a year ago, my spiritual life changed drastically. While I was a devout and practicing Catholic, my prayer life was lacking. I would talk to God throughout the day, but I failed to set a scheduled time specially devoted to prayer. I lacked real discipline in my spiritual life.

That all changed one night when I went to my young adult group. We had a speaker named Joseph Warren who shared his testimony, and how he became closer to God through daily prayer. He decided to sit in a chapel in prayer for an hour, and repeated this for thirty days. Thirty days became sixty days, and so on. His daily holy hour is what changed his relationship with God.

After the Joseph finished his talk that night, I had a little chat with him. This resulted in him personally challenging me to take "the Holy Hour Challenge", which meant that I had to commit to making a daily holy hour for thirty days straight. I was very reluctant to accept his offer, but he was persistent. I accepted the commitment, and would start the next day. There was a catch; everyday I would have to send a message to Joseph saying that I completed that day's holy hour. He was really going to make sure I actually did it! A few other young adults also took the challenge.

I know that various saints and holy men and women have used holy hours as a devotion. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is a notable example since he spent an hour praying in the presence of the Eucharist every single day. In the past I had tried making holy hours, but failed. I could barely commit to praying for a few minutes a day. Spending an entire sixty minutes in prayer was something that did not seem easy!

The first two young adults who took the challenge with me acted as accountability partners for the thirty day period. We had a group chat, and would send a message affirming that we completed that day's holy hour. A third young adult, who is a close friend of mine, also joined us in doing Joseph's challenge.

After I had completed my thirty days of prayer, Joseph surprised me with a bonus round. He challenged me to continue for an additional ten days. The Holy Hour Challenge had become a forty day season of prayer not unlike Lent. My close friend also decided to continue. We acted as accountability partners, decided to continue making a daily holy hour for an entire year.

Over this past year of making a daily holy hour, I have changed in my relationship with God. I could not always make it to a physical adoration chapel, so I would frequently make my holy hour in the privacy of my room. The point was to simply spend an hour in prayer, regardless of its location.

During those holy hours, I would do different spiritual practices. I would talk to God like a friend, pray devotions such as the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet, sit in silent meditation, etc. I have also read and meditated on some spiritual books. For example, for the first time in my life I read all four Gospels. Another work I read and meditated on was the Diary of St. Faustina, and it gave me many insights into the spiritual life.

My favorite place to make my daily Holy Hour was in the presence of the Eucharist. Even if I couldn't make it to Adoration, Jesus is still present in the tabernacle, so I would just sit in the chapel and pray. My visits to the chapel were a special time for me.

Since finishing this year of prayer, I have realized how much I was missing in my life before taking the challenge. Jesus was there waiting for me, but I chose not to spend as much time as I should have with Him. God is always available to us!

Over the past year, I didn't always feel like praying or making my daily holy hour, but I decided to keep the commitment. There were times when I wanted to quit. However, I kept my commitment and spent time with the Lord.

While I benefited from my scheduled prayer time, I have learned that prayer shouldn't be reduced to just the scheduled prayer time, or whatever devotion one does (Scripture reading, Rosary, etc). The discipline of committing a certain amount of time to prayer every day or to pray a certain devotion is good. However, being focused on merely completing your prayer time or simply saying your devotion can create the danger of looking at prayer as some kind of chore to get out of the way instead of looking at it as the communication in a real relationship. Instead of having a "get it out of the way" mindset, we should look at prayer as an opportunity to constantly converse with and listen to God in our hearts. While there are meditative and vocal aspects to it, prayer should not be reduced to a dull intellectual exercise or the mere recitation of words.

I have also learned to be more mindful of when I pray. There were times where I put off my holy hour until late at night, and when I prayed I kept getting distracted since I was tired and could barely concentrate. It was certainly good that I decided to pray instead of just giving up during those times, but I could have done better by making prayer more of a priority during the day instead of neglecting it. I've learned that it's best to start my day off with my holy hour. On the days I do just that, I can literally feel the difference! Making God a priority will literally change your life.

Now that my year of prayer is over, I have made the decision to continue with making a daily hour hour. I've just begun to deepen my personal relationship with Jesus, and I do not want to lose that relationship by falling into spiritual negligence. That one little "yes" to Joseph Warren's invitation to prayer changed my life. Daily prayer is now a priority in my life!

If you don't already have a special time each day devoted to prayer, I personally challenge you to change that. I invite you to take the 40 Day Holy Hour Challenge, and see where things go from there. It may seem difficult to shut out distractions and sit down for an hour of prayer every single day, but I encourage you to dive right into making a daily holy hour like I did. It will be difficult if you're not used to prayer, but it is worth it.

You might think you don't have the time to pray for an hour, but trust me, you do. You can make time to pray. If we can spend a hour scrolling through social media or watching TV everyday, we can certainly spend an hour with our Creator! You may worry about distractions during your prayer time, but the important thing is to not get distracted by your distractions! Don't give into the temptation to put off prayer. Remember, a holy hour a day keeps Satan away! ;)

Joseph has created a Facebook group titled "Daily Holy Hour." You can join the online group to start your 40 Day Holy Hour Challenge and get free virtual accountability. Click here to join!

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