The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on December 5, 2025 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
I confess, on days that feel burdened by too much to do, especially when that “one more thing” drops and throws another wrench in the day, I am more inclined, out of desperation, to whine, “what now?!” Often, unfortunately, I have thrown that phrase, or at least its attitude, out toward my young child when they’ve broken one more thing or to a coworker who has come to ask for one more thing. The stance of “what now!?” easily creeps in upon and around us when we feel burdened by obligation and fragmented in our sense of meaning and purpose.
By contrast, a prayer posture of “now, what?” can help to prioritize some order for the pile of obligation and to center our attention toward a singularity of purpose. St Gertrude the Great, a Benedictine nun and Abbess of a German monastery who lived from 1256-1302 can offer some guidance in this posture of prayer. Much like the example of many vowed women religious like her, Gertrude was in the habit of not only dedicating every day to her Lord, but even every hour, her religious sisters report that she would pause in the middle of each activity and ask her Lord how he would have her occupy her time.
Aside from our possible modern aversion to having a Lord tell a maiden what to do and when, there is a spiritual insight into Gertrude’s habit of checking in with her deepest desires on a regular basis: singularity of heart. What Gertrude most wanted with her whole being was to love her Beloved. Every hour of every day was then given order according to the most loving response she could offer to her deepest desire.
When we find ourselves burdened by the weight of obligation and distracted by the fragmentation of our attention to life’s purpose, we can follow Gertrude’s example of singularity of heart, so long as our Lord is Love, and take a moment to align ourselves with the prayer posture of, “now, what?” rather than “what now?!” Habitually through each hour of each day, in this moment overflowing into the next moment of activity, we respond in Love to the deepest desires of our hearts by asking, to what or whom shall I dedicate the singularity of my heart?
