And the answer is. . .

After writing my post yesterday I closed down the computer and came over all Martha-like so I did the ironing. Ironing is great therapy - especially if you iron sheets or tea towels - you don't really have to concentrate too much on what you are doing but you can think about all sorts of things. My thoughts were about my post and I was tempted to delete it but then I thought: 'that is the post I wrote and so it is going to stay as is.'

While ironing I prayed about my lack of prayer discipline. I asked God to help me. I remembered being told that even the desire to desire to pray is a gift from God in itself but I want more than that. I must move on from that state but how on earth could I rectify my serious problem?

Later I went back on line and was ambling around the blog world (as you do) when I came across the Pellagrinaggio blog spot for the first time and read this post
Having been on holidays for a while and not really paying much attention to the news either during that time or since returning, I was completely unaware that such a thing was going to happen. It shocked more than anything has done for quite some time. I was nearly in tears to think that such an offence was committed against Our Lord. It left me with a pain in my heart. I know He cannot be hurt by this but he can certainly be offended. I could not even think of the words to write to say how I feel about this most dreadful act. And then to read the terrible postings against some of those bloggers I hold dear - well it just made me feel so indignant that I decided to go off line and read instead.
And that is when I got the answer to my problem.
You know how sometimes you are in a book shop and you see a book and think "that sounds interesting, I'll buy that" and then you never actually get round to reading it for quite some time? That sometimes happens to me and so, feeling in the need to read something uplifting (and completely forgetting about my previous post) I took the book 'The Work of Our Redemption' by Clifford Howell SJ from the shelf. I bought it a few years ago in a second hand shop but never got around to reading it.
Well I started to read and voila! the answer to my previous post was there in black and white. Fr Howell wrote in the first chapter, entitled 'Why Worship':

"Let us start, then, by trying to see what it is all about. If we begin from the fact that man is God's creature, we see that man must take due notice of that fact and behave accordingly. But already we are dealing with every elements of 'religion'. That, after all, is what religion amounts to: 'taking due notice of God and behaving accordingly'.

There is a lot more of course but this blog post it is the key paragraph.

Taking due notice of God.

My prayers are a part of my taking due notice of God. If I forget to pray them I am not taking due notice of God.
I love God and I want to exhibit that fact to Him. It is not enough for me to merely say it although if I mean it then that is a good start. But I want to do more. I must do more. I will do more!

I have always wanted to do this, to take due notice of God (although not necessarily using those words) but the difference now is that I am going to do it!