A Rule of Life

For years I've been fascinated by the Rules of various Religious Orders.

Last year I read A Mother's Rule of Life. I enjoyed it even though I'm not a mother.

I also read St. Benedict's Rule of Life last year.

And a few others that I can't think of off the top of my head.

Beginning to pray the Liturgy of the Hours last January is what got me started and finding out about some of these Rules. And I've been praying and pondering on coming up with my own Rule of Life. I'm not exactly sure what it will entail....espeically as a "Rule of Life" isn't a "Schedule of Life". I came across a post the other day on how to go about praying over and setting up a rule of life.

So I'm going to take the month that the author suggests (on the suggestions of his spiritual director). That's what I'll work on for February I think. Praying upon this as something to put in place in my life. I have a daily prayer routine but....I can become lazy a lot of days and "let" other outside things sneak in and disrupt that prayer at times. I want prayer to become part of my work....and not just the times I set aside quickly in the mornings and a bigger chunk of at night.

And I think that if I had a "Rule" to follow it would help me not become quite so "lazy" on the days when my normal structure is off a bit. Such as yesterday when there was a snow day. I had all that time to pray even MORE then I usually do. And yet....I barely got in the structured prayers that I almost always fit in when I'm busy.

So we'll see where I go from here. I'll use the above post as a somewhat guideline...at least as an example of how to go about setting up a Rule for myself. And I know that as the months and years go on and my life situation changes my "Rule" will also change. This will (I hope) help me adapt more to the changes that come with life while at the same time help keep that structure of prayer no matter the changes.