my prayer retreat - pt. 2, i suppose

like i said, the weather was perfect. i spent a lot of times walking the trails, and some time sitting on my porch with a cup of tea, but the biggest chunk of time was perhaps spent sitting on a log in the woods. there are benches along some of the trails, but along my favorite trail there are none. this trail is a little separate from the others, but the woods are the prettiest there, it's quieter, and, for me at least, more peaceful. and it was on that log that i prayed my butt off for my player. when i go on this retreat, i kind of try to pray as the SPIRIT leads. i'll pray for all sorts of things and people, but if the SPIRIT lays something strongly on my heart (or, like last year, if i feel blocked from praying for someone or something), i try to go with that. this year it was my player. i spent a lot of time praying for him, getting as specific as possible, fighting against specific demons, praying specific blessings for him, using the Sword of the SPIRIT. i don't think i've ever prayed like that. it was a wonderful learning experience for me, seeing how non-generic my prayers can be, even if i don't know the person or their situation. hopefully that will help me when i get bored of praying the same thing over and over like i usually do.
i also finally decided to try what i've said for a year i wanted to try. considering how distracted i get when i pray, i had been thinking that using a rosary might help me - something tactile. my mother bought a rosary for me last year, when i first mentioned it, but i hadn't used it yet. here i tried it. a rosary has 5 sets of 10 beads, so the way i decided to use it was by using that handy little ACTS acronym - 10 beads of adoration, 10 confession, 10 thanksgiving, and 10 supplication. (didn't know what to do with the last 10 beads. finally decided that i will choose a verse and read/recite it 10 times, either to focus my mind on whatever that verse is saying, or in hopes of memorization.) turns out it's as helpful as i thought it would be. takes a little while, but when, in my everyday life, do i ever spend 20 minutes in prayer? using the rosary i spend at least that. and the structure and tactile reminders really do help me focus.