How do I encourage my boyfriend to lead spiritually in prayer? And how do I bring it up wanting to pray consistently with my significant other?
As women, we have such a deep desire for our significant others, whether it’s our boyfriend, fiance, or spouse, to lead our family. For men, it can be a scary thing that they feel inadequate or self doubt. The devil attacks them too. The biggest thing you can do is affirm your significant other’s masculinity, affirm that inherent desire within them. However, how do you expect your significant other to lead you in prayer if you don’t have a relationship with Christ yourself? The graces will flow from your relationship with the Lord.
Pray for your significant other to have the fortitude to lead you in prayer. And it doesn't have to be something huge. You can simply say a night time prayer together or just ask “how can I pray for you? If you're called to the vocation of marriage, just be honest with them, just share your desires and that will be a good building block to kind of help achieve that.
Do you have any tips or tricks on how to make time for prayer during a busy season?
Schedule it in. Whether your single, dating, or whatever season you are in, find an accountability partner. If it’s just checking in with each other or physically going to the chapel or mass with you, just hold each other accountable. Our faith is not meant to be gone through alone. Even Jesus did not carry his own cross, and we're not meant to carry our own cross and go through the faith life alone. The church was built on community and that's something that's super important to keep in mind.
Listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. If you feel that the Lord is calling you to go to daily mass and it wasn’t on your schedule, go if you have the time. Whatever it is, say yes to those promptings because that is the Lord extending his grace to invite you into a relationship with Him.
Learn how to Catholicize your day. Find little things in your day that can help invoke prayer. Set an alarm on your phone at specific times to pray for certain people or to pray a certain prayer. Sometimes our to-do lists are endlessly long and we tend to work God around our schedule instead of working our schedule around God.
So for those of us who are in relationships, what would you say are some of your favorite ways to pray for your partner or ways to do so?
A couple ways you can pray for your partner is by asking them how you can pray for them, or by praying for their heart and that they can keep growing in their relationship with Christ. Pray for his community of men to build Him up and to have good role models of faith. When you are together, spend 10-20 minutes of undivided attention together and completely focus on each other. Ask how their day was, how they are doing spiritually, how they are mentally, etc.
What is one piece of advice you want every young Catholic woman to know?
“Remember where your identity lies. I think it's like the crux of our spiritual life, especially as being women. The devil hates us. He hates us. Yeah, he squirms and sweats because we are women. Embody what it is to be feminine and to be woman as God created to be, that is where the Lord is calling you.” -Sarah