Is there not a difference between living life in an attitude of prayer, meaning, being always conscious of God’s presence as one goes about one’s duties, and engaging in a scheduled period of prayer, devoted solely to that purpose?
Obviously, some activities are more conducive to maintaining an attitude of prayer than others. Physically repetitive work, for example, is amenable to keeping the mind focused on spiritual matters, whereas work that requires one to maintain constant mental focus is less so. People come in all varieties, those whose temperaments and souls tend to either mode of prayer or anywhere in between. (Alas, another “spectrum!”)
And thank God! We think of holy priests, saints who couldn’t finish Mass because they levitated in a state of ecstasy, all wonderful, but if you’re an air traffic controller, that’s not good unless you can suspend the planes with you! Other saints no less holy spent their days in corporal works of mercy, serving others or in solitary physical labor that demanded their complete focus. They depended upon those scheduled prayer times and upon the prayers of others, cloistered nuns, for example, to hold them up. So let’s not criticize or call one another into doubt.
Most people need a daily balance of scheduled prayer time and times in which a prayerful, “pray without ceasing” mindset is present.
Both count as “prayer time” if prayer is truly taking place.
Personally, I’d like to hope that someone writing about me on CI is in an attitude of prayer. If you are of the temperament that finds mental multitasking difficult or impossible, at least save and reread your post before hitting send!
Can one post on CI and be in prayer? Why not? Maybe Matthew should make it a requirement! There’d be fewer posts that turn to uncharitable arguments, name-calling, or gossip.