105: #ThoughtsAndPrayers ft. Chika Anyanwu

The Catholic Feminist

Claire Swinarski

Religion & Spirituality, Christian, Politics, Jesus, Catholic, Religion, Socialjustice, Christianity, Feminist, Women

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s what we’re told to do without ceasing. It’s my first recommendation for any struggle. It’s at times the only thing we know to do. But…why does cultivating a prayer life feel so freaking hard sometimes?

Because to be honest, the Rosary can feel SO dry. I want to snuggle up with my Bible and a candle and coffee but, um, my kids wake up at 6:30 and if I don’t workout beforehand I feel like a lunatic all day. I love the idea of having this really steady prayer routine but I just struggle to really crank it out. When I was a FOCUS missionary, I did a daily holy hour, but these days, I’m lucky to get in 15 solid minutes of chitchat time with Jesus. That’s partly why I dubbed 2019 my year of prayer: I want to positively drench my life, family, vocation, and days in prayer. But…aren’t I supposed to WANT to pray? How come half the time I get ready to pray I just feel totally blah?

Today’s guest, speaker and author Chika Anyanwu, chats with me about all things prayer. We talk about what our prayer lives look like, how to get over that “have to” syndrome, and why people hate the phrase #ThoughtsAndPrayers. It’s truly one of my favorite conversations I’ve had on the show and I hope it resonates with you today.

Today’s episode is brought to you by Select International Tours. Join Fr. Leo on a cruise down the Danube River this fall by heading to www.thecatholicfeministpodcast.com/tour and check out selectinternationaltours.com/feminist to learn more about the amazing trips they have to offer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Catholic feminist episode 105.
0:04.3	Today we're talking all about cultivating the most meaningful prayer life possible.
0:09.3	Today's episode is brought to you by select international tours. If you have nothing to do this fall
0:14.7	and you want to sail down the Danube River on an amazing cruise ship with Father Leo,
0:19.7	make sure to head on over to the Catholic feminist podcast.com slash tour to get more
0:24.6	information and sign up.
0:27.0	Welcome to the Catholic feminist, a podcast for strong women who want to be informed, inspired, and intentional.
0:35.0	I'm your host, Claire, and I'm so glad you're here. I've really seen this cycle taking place within our culture that bothers me.
0:56.7	A tragedy happens, whether it's a natural disaster, school shooting, police brutality, any kind of tragedy happens. And
1:07.2	instantly people share their thoughts about it on social media within like five
1:11.9	seconds of it happening and a lot of times they say
1:15.2	thoughts and prayers.
1:16.3	Thoughts and prayers to this person, thoughts and prayers to that situation, thoughts
1:19.4	and prayers to this issue. And then a bunch of other people get online again within five seconds
1:25.7	and say we don't want your thoughts and prayers and they share memes with like the
1:30.2	word prayer crossed out and they talk about how prayer is meaningless and thoughts and prayers mean nothing and we need
1:36.0	action and the whole thing to me just seems like one big show.
1:40.8	It seems like everyone's just trying to appear to be the most virtuous
1:43.7	person possible and no one is actually caring. I mean I hope that people are
1:48.8	actually praying but it seems like our culture takes the idea of prayer and says that's stupid and
1:54.6	pointless and we don't want to do it or it takes the idea of prayer and says like
1:58.9	man we're so helpless and can do nothing so we're just gonna to pray and then we're going to go back
	...

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