McGrath Institute Blog

The busier I become, the more I’m tempted to rush or even decrease my prayer time. But whenever I do this, I neglect the real purpose of my prayer: to set aside time and space to connect with or encounter God.

I find it difficult to remember many specifics about my first semester at Notre Dame. Mostly I just recall a general sense of being overwhelmed, in all senses of the word. It was exciting and exhausting and amazing and lonely and everyone was so smart and so impressive and just so everything. Some days I would run from class to class to activity, and suddenly it was 8 PM and I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. It’s not that I didn’t want food – I was literally so busy that I had forgotten to eat. Busy with many, many good things, to be sure – but there was just so much to do!

Revered for her heroic virtue, radical hospitality and contributions to the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day is the epitome of Christian love. But is she a saint? In her own words, she could do without the title. Dorothy was known to say bluntly, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily."

The works of mercy are loving acts of service and compassion directed towards the spiritual and material needs of our neighbors. At first glance, it may seem odd to include them alongside other forms of prayer, but we must remember that prayer and the Christian life are inseparable. The love of God that leads us into prayer is the same love that leads us to serve our neighbor. Consider the words of Jesus: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39).