I recently heard from Becky, another new convert, regarding prayer:

What you said about prayer today really resonated with me. As a Lutheran, I found that "free-form" prayer quickly turned into "whenever I feel like it" prayer, which rapidly degenerated into practically nothing. … Now that I'm in the Catholic Church, I'm learning to pray parts of the Liturgy of the Hours, and I find it very helpful, both because it gives me a firm structure and because I know I'm praying with the Church all over the world."

This is so interesting to me, because so many people I know who have become Catholic after being Protestant say the same thing about relying on the structure. I haven't looked into the Liturgy of Hours yet myself. I have a Russian Orthodox prayer book and an Anglican Book of Common Prayer -- I imagine it's high time I invested in a Catholic version. If anybody has any recommendations, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for writing, Becky!

--Sparki