One obstacle I have found to focusing during prayer has been an attempt to race through prayers. If I’m praying the entire Liturgy of the Hours or praying with the daily readings, I usually get the feeling that I need to say and read quickly so that I can finish quickly. I get easily distracted this way.
One solution that has helped me focus during prayer is to shorten the prayers or at least the number of prayers. I have found that I can delve much more deeply into a prayer or a Scripture reading when I don’t have the obligation of reading or saying more afterwards.
I’m not necessarily saying that I will always say short prayers, but I am a firm believer in starting small to build strong habits. So my (short) advice today is to focus only one thing during prayer rather than multiple prayers or readings. You could even try focusing on only one short prayer like the Our Father or the Hail Mary and meditate upon them.
Today, I opt for quality rather than quantity of prayers.
