We are parents to a lively, squirmy, joyful, life-loving one year-old. Before God made us her parents, our faith life looked very different than it does now.

We used to arrive very early for Mass to make sure we had enough time to pray and prepare ourselves beforehand.

I would journal during Mass and write notes during the Homily so I would retain more of what I learned during the Mass.

We attended Eucharistic Adoration once a week.

We were constantly reading enriching books or listening to talks about our Catholic faith.

We prayed together for a good fifteen minutes every night.

I was saying the Rosary often and had a lot of time to spend in reflection and prayer every day.

I would read through countless Catholic blogs and stayed up-to-date on everything developing with our Pope and our faith. I felt so "plugged in"!

Now? 

I'm lucky if my husband and I are able to finish our night time prayer before one of us falls asleep. Mass is a frenzy of chasing after baby while she speeds down the aisle toward the altar, stopping her from dropping the kneelers on her sweet little toes (or unsuspecting fellow parishioners in our pew), or keeping her from tearing the hymnals apart. I leave feeling terrible that I can't remember what the readings were or what the Priest was trying to tell us in the day's Homily. I try squeezing in the Rosary or a Divine Mercy Chaplet whenever we're driving in the mini-van. We rotate our time in Adoration every other week. We've tried taking our little one with us and still do sometimes, but some days we are desperately craving quiet and still time in His real presence in the Sacrament.

During this short and inconsistent prayer time, the Lord has worked hard to shout above the noise and say loud and clear, "I see you." Every time I'm able to sneak in these precious moments with Him, I get an overwhelming sense of, "It's okay. Just breathe. Just sit and be held". And what I'm offering Him in what I'm doing in the every day as a wife and mom is a prayer in itself. The endless loads of laundry and meal prep, the constant wiping up messes and cleaning mashed up food out of our cherub's hair on repeat, flipping through the same board book over and over.....it's an endless prayer that exalts Him every time it's done. If you are single and serve others in another compacity, like nursing, fighting in the Armed Forces, social work, health care, hospice care, etc., the same goes for you. Your "busy" and act of serving others is a prayer offering.

While our present prayer and faith life is not worse, it is just different. After this first year, I've finally learned to surrender to this fact. In this surrender, God is really sanctifying me and drawing me close, even though it doesn't look like "formal" prayer. Prayer is absolutely the foundation of our relationship with Christ and we should still try our best to create prayerful time with Him, but as parents it may look a little different.

I used to think I could only be near Him in still, silent prayer. Yet, in the hustle and bustle and noise of parenthood, my prayer offering of our service to our children and each other as spouses are tools He's using to make us better. He's making me more patient with our baby, with my husband, and with myself. I've learned that not accomplishing everything on my to-do list is absolutely okay and to stop feeling guilty and inadequate about it. When I'm serving and loving others, I'm checking things off His to-do list. That, dear sisters, I feel, is so important in our vocation as parents.

So, tomorrow morning as you are trying to finish your coffee and are squeezing in a bit of prayer time before the sweet sound of your baby comes over the monitor, remember that you are raising a prayer. Your prayer life may no longer be "perfect", but it will be different. While we are trying to raise His Saints, they are forming us into Saints. Your little ones are each a prayer and an exaltation on two chubby little legs.