Jelena of Medjugorje: how do you pray when you are too busy?

 

Jelena says: close relationships with Jesus' and Mary more than setting times and ways.
It is easy to give in to a formalistic conception of prayer, that is, to do it over time, in quantity, in due forms, and thus believe that you have fulfilled your duty, but without having met God; or remain discouraged by our state and abandon it. Here is how Jelena (16 years) responds to a group from Lecco.
Jelena: I wouldn't say that we pray well only when it becomes a joy to pray, but we must also pray when we are disturbed, but at the same time we feel the desire to go there and meet the Lord, because Our Lady says that prayer is nothing other than a great encounter with the Lord: it is not just going to recite to do one's duties in this sense. You say that through this path we can understand more and more ... If one is distracted, you mean that he has no will; instead this will must have it, and pray for it. Then Our Lady says that we must always be abandoned to the Lord in everything we do, in work, in study, with people, and then it becomes easier to talk to God, because we are less attached to all these things.

Question: I am sixteen years old, it is difficult for me to pray; I pray but it seems to me that I am not reaching. never the maximum and having to do more and more.

Jelena: it is important that these your desires and these your ailments really abandon them to the Lord, because Jesus says: “I want you just as you are ', because if we were perfect we wouldn't need Jesus. But this desire to do more and more certainly can help to pray better and better, because we must understand that all life is a journey and we must always go on.

Question: You are a commuter student, like many of our young people who have to take the bus, rather crushed, and arrive at school tired, then eat and then wait for the most suitable spiritual moment to pray….

Jelena: it occurs to me that Our Lady taught us not to measure time and that prayer is truly spontaneous. Above all, I have tried to understand Our Lady as my true mother, and Jesus as my true brother, not only to find a fixed time to pray and perhaps not be able to pray. I tried to understand that she is truly the one you want to help me always .. Always then when I felt tired I tried to pray anyway, to really invoke you, because I knew that if you don't help me, who else can you help me? It is in this sense that Our Lady is closest to us in difficulties and sufferings.

Question: How much do you pray in one day?

Jelena: It really depends on the days. Sometimes two or three hours are prayed, many times more, sometimes less. If I have so many hours of school today, he will find time to do more tomorrow. We always pray in the morning, in the evening, and then during the day when we have time.

Question: What is the impact with your school anises like? Are they making fun of you, or did they come to meet you?

Jelena: Since we are of different religions in my school, they are of little interest. But when they ask I answer what they ask. They really never made fun of me. If then, talking about these things, you see that the road is a bit hard, then we never insisted on talking, on telling: we really preferred to pray and set an example as much as possible.