When a priest stops praying, his priesthood withers. When a priest stops praying, his ministry cannot bear fruit. When a priest stops praying, both he and his people suffer.

One of the most challenging dimensions of priestly life and ministry is sustaining an interior life. The burdens of administration and the management of a parish staff, the financial challenges that accompany parish schools, assignments where one priest is responsible for three or four different communities or worship sites, and the daily demands of pastoral life all combine to add stress and eat away the hours. And too often for us, the first thing to go is time for prayer.

This only worsens when a priest receives negative feedback, complaints or criticism from parishioners, or when he feels unheard or unappreciated by his superiors. The dejection that often ensues can become a despondency or acedia, and the priest can develop an apathy toward things of the Spirit.

In almost every major American seminary today, one of the elements of spiritual formation which is most encouraged is the daily Holy Hour, time spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, whether reposed in the tabernacle or exposed in a monstrance. When I was formed over 30 years ago, this was not generally a feature of life in many seminaries. Popularized by Fulton Sheen, who spoke of it at length in his autobiography in a chapter titled “The Hour That Makes My Day,” a daily Holy Hour has emerged in the last few decades as a common feature in seminary formation.

What is important, of course, is not the number of minutes themselves — as though praying for 53 minutes instead of 60 invalidates the efficacy of the prayer — but that the commitment to it demands time spent in quiet and prayer, hopefully in the presence of the Lord, our high priest.

The time can be broken up, of course: four 15-minute periods of prayer each day in the church; two 30-minute periods in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament; or an hour (or so) each day, and at a time when the priest is most attentive and least likely to be interrupted or distracted.

An anchor in ministerial life

There is of course the risible notion — unconsciously held by many — that holy people have to be morning people, and those who pray later in the day are somehow slackers. Absurd. As Dom John Chapman advised over a century ago, “pray as you can, not as you can’t.” The time of day a priest prays will differ from man to man, but it’s truly necessary that each one prays.

What should a Holy Hour look like? There should be no fixed formula, as each priest has his own temperament, preferred ways of prayer and devotional practices. That said, you should have an agenda, so to speak: a plan as to how you will spend the hour. Have an agenda, but don’t be ruled by that agenda, as the Lord may wish to prompt or move you in another direction.

It may mean largely lectio with Scripture (either the readings of the day or another piece of Scripture), or perhaps mental prayer, the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, or spiritual reading. Take your pick. Over time you will discover what is working for you and what isn’t. And over time you will no doubt need to restructure or reorganize the way the hour looks, as it can become stale or dry. Again, pray as you can, not as you can’t.

I am regularly edified by younger priests who take the Holy Hour seriously and are faithful to it, however it is parceled out and spent. And we all know how easy it is, after a long Lent, to take our foot off the pedal and coast a bit during the Easter season. But the Holy Hour can give us an anchor in a chaotic ministerial life. The key is our commitment and fidelity to it.

It can become an oasis of quiet repose — away from phones, email and the office — with the Lord who has called us to be his priests.

MSGR. MICHAEL HEINTZ is pastor of St. Pius X Parish in Granger, Indiana, and the visiting director of the Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgics at the University of Notre Dame.