You’ve probably been told your whole life that you need to pray. But it’s possible you’ve never asked the question: Why?

It's a great question. It is also the answer. It is very important to establish your reason, to establish your why. Why are you going to pray? Why is prayer important to you? The clearer you become about your reasons for prayer, the more likely you are to establish this essential daily habit as a key touchstone in each and every single day of your life. 

You yearn for deeply personal answers to your deeply personal questions. The world cannot give you these. It is more important for you to find your own reasons.

Blessed Ceslaus of Poland had an obvious reason for prayer when his city was besieged by the Mongols.

Ceslaus was a Dominican monk in the year 1241 when the Mongols set siege to Wrocław, Poland. It seemed impossible to ward off the invaders, and fear swept through the city. In this moment of desperation, Ceslaus turned to prayer, gathering the community to beseech God for protection. Tradition holds that his prayers resulted in a miraculous storm that turned the invaders away, saving the city from devastation.

Blessed Ceslaus of Poland had a reason to pray during that invasion. But his why was far deeper than that. He had long ago discovered the peace and purpose prayer infuses into our lives, and so he was ready to turn to prayer in his moment of greatest need.

A great way to find your reason to pray is to follow your questions. Questions play an important role in our spiritual journey, and I urge you to jot down and date the questions you have along the way. You will look back at different times; these questions and the dates you began asking them will provide powerful context to your journey. They will show where you have been and encourage you in where you are going.

It takes courage to place our questions before God in prayer. It takes patience to wait for the answers, which are sometimes given to us in prayer and sometimes delivered through other people and the experience of daily life. It takes wisdom to live the answers we discover. 

These answers likely won’t all come at once. For now, I ask you to consider this: Could pausing to take a few minutes with God each day change everything for the better? And yes, I mean everything. Is it possible?

I assure you, it is.



Feast Day: July 17

Feast Day Shared By: Saint Marcellina, Saint Alexius, and Saint Leo IV

Patron Saint of: Wrocław (Poland)

Symbols: A Ball of Fire Above His Head

Beatified: 1713

Beatified By: Pope Clement XI