We’ve been talking about MROL again at 4Real.

I posted a link to our schedule, and shared this:

Sticking to a “rule” is difficult — part of our fallen nature, I tend to think now. To stick with a schedule when I want to take a break, have fun, rest, procrastinate, is really hard. It takes a lot of grace. Like many here, I’ve found that prayer is what keeps me on track. On the days when I pray the most, that’s when I’ve been able to stick to the schedule the most and do the things I know I should do. When I let my prayer life slide, the schedule falls by the wayside as well. Everything hinges on prayer and spiritual reading. That’s just my .02 though.

And I just wanted to reiterate that. Praying first thing in the morning, doing my Bible reading early, and then taking in more spiritual reading during the day, and taking scheduled pauses to read and pray (even if it’s just a page of In Conversation with God, or even if it’s just 3 Hail Marys) — REALLY help me a lot to keep my focus and keep my will directed towards “first things”. Any day that I let these things go, I slide back, and it’s SOOO hard to get back on track. Since Lent this is the lesson I’ve been learning — just how dependent I am on God and how much of a failure I am when I don’t lean on Him ALL THE TIME. Any time I fool myself into thinking I’m self-sufficient, *I* can do this, I — almost all the time — fail.

So I’m keeping this short, because I haven’t said my afternoon prayers yet.