Quick Tips to Integrate Prayer Into Your Workday
“Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God” (St. Teresa of Ávila).
Prayer, through its various forms, is an important means of nurturing a personal, one-on-one relationship with the Lord. However, as businesswomen, we know that we can easily fill our workday with back-to-back meetings and pressing tasks to accomplish. As we attempt to balance the busyness of work with our family and personal life, prayer may, despite our best intentions, end up being pushed to the side.
However, that does not have to be the case. Here is a non-exhaustive list of a few simple ways to prioritize prayer during working hours. These tips hold whether you work from home, commute to work, or have a hybrid working schedule.
Associate Prayer With Certain Times
The first tip is to associate particular times of the workday with a form of prayer. Creating such an association can be an effective way to actively pray throughout the day. These prayer times can be as sparse or as regular as your schedule permits, and the frequency may change depending on your work season.
A great starting place is to associate the start and the end of your working hours with a prayer. There is no right or wrong way to do this. You can search online for inspiration or make up your own prayers. You can also speak to God from your heart in spontaneous prayer or begin and end the workday by reading a short passage from a spiritual book. Be creative, and experiment to find what feels right.
Another example of an association is praying the Rosary (even just one decade) during your commute. If you work from home, pick a time during the day to pray the number of decades that works for you. And of course, you can pray a “grace before meals” at lunch each day.
Pray While on a Break
Maybe you have regularly scheduled breaks, or perhaps your schedule is flexible in when you can take them. When you do, spend some time in prayer. Depending on the day, perhaps it is a prayer of thanksgiving or one of intercession, or maybe you can use it to start or continue a Novena.
If your job involves a lot of screentime, don’t forget to give your eyes a break from the monitor at regular intervals, and add in a little prayer.
Go to Mass on a Weekday
Attending daily Mass before work, during lunch, or after work once a week or more is another beautiful form of prayer. At Mass, we pray in community, we hear God speaking to us through Scripture, and we receive Christ through the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
Take Time for a Brief Reflection
Reflect on a Bible quote or a quote from a saint for the day, the week, or whatever frequency makes sense for you. Subscribe to receive a quote, or select your own ahead of time.
Add Prayer to Your Workday Calendar
Schedule your workday prayer in your calendar as you would for your other meetings and tasks throughout your day. Find the option (print or digital) that works best for you—maybe setting up recurring phone reminders or having a prayer card in a visible spot at your workstation.
Integrating prayer into the busyness of our schedule does not have to be complex. And by integrating various forms of prayer into our workday, we are prioritizing our relationship with God.
Sarah Gagliano Taliun is a genetics professor with many interests in addition to studying DNA. She and her husband now call Montreal home. When she is not reading a scientific article or meeting with students, Sarah can be found experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, reading her Bible or taking a walk in nature.