Come with me if you want to pray

We're going on a field trip today. Over to Huffington Post, where you'll find me writing about prayer. Just call me HuffPoust. Why the foray so far afield? Well, HuffPo invited me to write about prayer in connection with my newest book, The Essential Guide to Catholic Prayer and the Mass. So today I'm covering "What's the Point of Prayer?" I'll start you off here and let you continue over there:

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Most of us, at one time or another, send up a prayer and hope against hope for the answer we want. And more often than not, we wait and wonder, as we continually check our spiritual inbox for some sort of sign, if perhaps our prayer fell on deaf ears, or on any ears at all. Hello? Is this thing on?

Unfortunately, prayer is not like a gumball machine. We don't put our prayers in and then wait with cupped hands for the correct response to come pouring out.

Prayer can be a tricky thing, even for those who do it religiously, so to speak. We can get the feeling we're not doing it right or that we have to be holier in order to pray. Not the case. Blessed Pope John Paul II once said: "How to pray? This is a simple matter. I would say: Pray any way you like so long as you pray."

So on that note, let's look at the five most common questions people ask me about prayer:

1. My life is already so jam-packed with responsibilities. How can I add daily prayer to the list?

Prayer is not meant to be a chore and certainly shouldn't become one more stress. Continue reading HERE.