Leaders who pray daily are beacons for Christ

Mother Teresa faced a challenge many businesses face when they begin to scale. 

As she was being invited to expand her India-based mission and open houses to serve the poorest of the poor around the world, there were, no doubt, moments when she and her Missionaries of Charity sisters felt overwhelmed and stretched for time, resources, and personnel like never before.

It was at this critical juncture that she did the most unthinkable thing.  She added to her already full schedule an extra holy hour of prayer — one hour praying in eucharistic adoration. Instead of relying solely on her own effort and abilities, she gave God more time in prayer, trusting that the Lord would work through her in an even more powerful way.

Not every lay leader may be able to pray a daily holy hour, but do we prioritize giving at least some time to God each day in prayer? Do we see that our leadership in our businesses, families, or parishes is not just about us, but about allowing God to work more fully through us? 

Mother Teresa and her sisters recited a prayer each morning that reinforced this important point. They said to God, “Shine through us, and be so in us, that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.”

What a remarkable prayer! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every soul we come in contact with each day — our customers, employees, business partners, spouse, children, friends — encountered not just us, but something of Christ’s love radiating through us?

We pray because we owe it to God. We pray because it is good for our souls. But we pray also because others are depending on us praying each day. My wife and children, for example, need me to have a daily prayer life. I sincerely love my family, but I know my love for them falls short. It’s tainted by my own weaknesses, sins, and imperfections. They need Christ’s love radiating through me. 

Similarly, whether they realize it or not, my staff, customers, and business partners need me to pray. If I’m going to be the best leader I can to be for them, I want to give them more than my entrepreneurial abilities, management skills, or visionary mindset. I want to give them Christ radiating through me. 

But that can only happen if I take in the deep breath of prayer each day. 

There are many methods of prayer, but the four basic ways can be summed up with the initialism ACTS: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. These ways of talking with God should be a regular part of one’s prayer life. After a while, one might also consider adding other methods of prayer such as lectio divina or Ignatian meditation. The key is not just to say prayers, but to have 15 or 20 minutes each day in quiet time for intimate conversation with the Lord.

Regardless of approach, always remember how crucial daily prayer is in all a Christian does. If a person wants to give the best of himself — in his business, his family, his parish, his relationship with God — he needs to remember that the best of himself is not merely him, but Christ radiating through him. Christ will shine more fully through him only if he has a committed daily prayer life.