On Traveling, Part 2 – Prayer

One thing that is certain in life; we each develop habits, some good and some not so good. Prayer is one such habit that we each should strive to have in our life. We should strive to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5.17) but when we travel this too, (see blog from November 24) takes a back seat to our fun in the sun vacation plans.
On a normal day most of us awake, go to work, come home, and go to sleep, with any number of personal hygiene and other such personal customs at each point of our day. If we are committed Christians these other customs includes morning and evening prayers and maybe even some “prayerful moments” when the day isn’t going quite as we had planned. But take us out of the normal schedule for a few days vacation and our entire world turns upside-down. We sleep in, drive the opposite direction of work, sleep somewhere “on the road” and take in the sights of wherever we are vacationing. Unfortunately our prayers also suffer during these spurts of non-conformity. We may even forget to pray altogether simply because our morning routine was altered to avoid going to work.

Just as in fasting, our prayers must remain a constant part of our day especially when we travel. When are traveling, we encounter a variety of temptations often just by reading the roadside billboards. The best thing we can do during travel time is to keep a small “travel prayer kit” along with our luggage. This kit should include a small (often diptych) icon of Christ and the Theotokos and a prayer book and maybe our prayer rope. For longer journeys like months at the beach we consider taking an entire “Home Altar” where the family can come together and thank God for their many blessings.

Each morning, whether we are traveling or in the throngs of our daily routine, we should begin each day in prayer. Consult your spiritual father for suggestions on what prayers should be included. When in doubt there are a number of very well compiled prayer books published by Orthodox Christian publishers. One idea may be a “minimum daily prayer” where when time is short you “fall back” on the minimum but if time allows more full prayer session can happen.

Either way, keep praying since it is the only we can remain connected to God and dedicate our thoughts to Him.