The holidays got me busy and I never formally reflected on the end of my 7X7 prayer experiment on my blog. So here goes. Some takeaways for me:

• 2 AM prayer was not the hardest part like I thought it would be. 5 AM prayer was the hardest part because after the 2 AM prayer I went back to sleep until the 5 AM prayer which made it hit me like a ton of bricks.
• I’m still not sure that I fully understand the ribbon system, but I think the ribbons are pretty. And more than that I think the Liturgy of the Hours encourages exploration. I didn’t feel stupid when I discovered that I had done something in the wrong order or prayed something that wasn’t scheduled yet. I chose to view it as a beautiful accident that got me praying all the more.
• I think the best part of this experience was that I felt like I haunted myself with the holy. It got into my psyche in a deep way so that I found myself craving to pray the liturgy when I was getting close to the next set hour. It has been a long time since I felt such a craving for God. That was a good feeling.
• There are so many beautiful hymns and poems scattered throughout the book (and it’s only 1 of 4 volumes for the Liturgy of the Hours!). I marked some of my favorites and shared some of them in some previous posts.

I am really glad I did the 7X7 and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a spiritual boot camp. I called it a spiritual “hell week” in a previous post, but later when talking with my friend John realized I missed the low hanging fruit of an even better way to designate it: “heaven week.” That’s what it was to me: a heaven week. I am continuing to use the Liturgy of the Hours and kept some of the alarms on my phone to call me to prayer periodically, but I am not praying the 2 or 5 AM set times anymore. I also enjoy a great deal more flexibility with how and when and if I pray the Liturgy of the Hours.