Prayer was important for Christ. . . How important is it for you?
There are 17 references to Jesus prayer life in the gospels. Jesus modelled a life of prayer for us.
- He prayed often, He prayed early in the morning, late at night, all through the night.
- He prayed before critical events in His life.
- He prayed as He ministered to others.
- He prayed before His miracles.
- And He prayed for others.
If communicating with His Father was that important to Jesus, shouldn’t it be a priority for us? So what is prayer?
"Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God." That definition in the catechism remains, for my part at any rate, the best of all definitions of prayer. But one word was omitted: trying. Prayer is trying to raise our minds and hearts to God. Trying to pray is prayer and it is very good prayer. (To be a Pilgrim)
The only failure in prayer is when we neglect it. The only 'success' in prayer is the sense of God's presence, or a deep peace and sense of well-being, a marvelous moment of inner freedom. When that comes, it is a special gift from God.
Friendships need space to develop and grow strong. Friends must waste time together. It is also thus in prayer. Prayer is making friends with God and He with us. Prayer is trying to focus the mind on God, and to admit Him into our hearts. Prayer is wasting time with God. Prayer needs space to develop and grow strong.
We cannot get to God Himself except in so far as He enables us to do so. More often than not we get no further than the sense of a presence which is beyond words, images, ideas. It can be likened to being in a room, dark and silent, with a loved one - no words being spoken, no sight vouchsafed, just a sense of the presence of the other. These moments of 'presence' are gift from God, frequent for some, rare for others. Being gift they are neither of right or reward, but more likely to occur to one faithful in prayer and in life.
When you get no consolation in prayer, when you feel you are getting nowhere, that may be the best prayer you have ever said, because you are doing it not for your sake, but for God's. Always seek the God of consolation; never seek the consolations of God. It is always that way round.
Quite often we are in a kind of distraught mood, and simply don't know how to pray, feeling that deep sense of being lost. It is good at such times to see oneself rather like the lost sheep in the parable caught in the briars, surrounded by fog; the more you try to escape from the brambles the more you get entangled. The more you try to rush through the fog the more likely you are to get lost. When you are in that mood just wait in your prayer, wait for Him to come and disentangle you.
Private prayer
Personal, private prayer: that is when we find ourselves wanting to steal a few minutes out of the day just to be alone with God, trying to give Him our attention, trying to focus our thoughts on Him, trying to listen when He speaks to us deep within. We are poor, blind, wounded, but those are the best dispositions in order to put ourselves into a situation where we try to raise our minds to think about God and try to purify our desire of Him. When I begin to do that, then I am beginning personal prayer. Once I start doing that then my official response - either attending Mass or Evening Prayer - begins to be a little bit different. Public prayer finds its real soul when we start doing seriously private prayer.
Quite often, perhaps even very often, praying words slowly or reflecting on a passage from the Gospel may seem to be frustrating and unrewarding. Do not be surprised and anxious. Such a situation purifies our motive for praying, which is primarily to please God, not to comfort ourselves. Our perseverance is a proof of our love.
The prayer of silence
A very precious way to pray is just through silence. No thoughts or words, just wanting to be silent in the presence of God. Perhaps one of the high points in prayer is where two silences meet: God's silence and our silence. No need for thoughts - and words get in the way.
To be alone with God
Meditation is what we do when we steal moments out of the day to be alone with God, however short that time may be; when we wonder what He is like, when we 'explore' God. But we need something to guide us in our exploration. There can be no better starting point than a passage from the Gospel, reading it slowly until it gives up its meaning; then it stirs your heart. When you start to meditate, you will find distractions galore, even boredom, the sense of getting nowhere. The point is you have to stick at it. You have to make an act of faith, because the moments you spend trying to raise your mind to God are moments precious and golden. There is a kind of paradox in the situation because the more you try, the more frustrating the activity seems to become. You have to stick at it and come to recognise the simple truth that if there is any success in prayer it is a gift from God.
Prayer before a Crucifix
I think the Crucifix is a great help to prayer. You look and look, and if you are suffering as Jesus did, then that looking will help you understand something about Our Lord, and something about yourself. It gives up its secret. Those are things you cannot write about, things you cannot talk about. Those are things you have to experience. Pray with your eyes in times of stress, no words, no thoughts, just look at the Crucifix. Then take out your rosary and kiss the Crucifix. That is a marvellous prayer.
Cardinal Basil Hume Thoughts on Prayer from The Mystery
of Love, by Cardinal Basil Hume (DLT 2004)
Prayer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
2697 Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment. 2698 The Tradition of the Church proposes to the faithful certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer. Some are daily, such as morning and evening prayer, grace before and after meals, the Liturgy of the Hours. Sundays, centered on the Eucharist, are kept holy primarily by prayer. The cycle of the liturgical year and its great feasts are also basic rhythms of the Christian's life of prayer.
2699 Christian Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer: vocal meditative, and contemplative. They have one basic trait in common: composure of heart. This vigilance in keeping the Word and dwelling in the presence of God makes these three expressions intense times in the life of prayer.
Expressions of Prayer
i) Vocal Prayer
2700 Through his Word, God speaks to man. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer: "Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of words, but on the fervor of our souls."[2]
2701 Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his disciples, drawn by their Master's silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of Gesthemani.[3]
2702 The need to involve the senses in interior prayer corresponds to a requirement of our human nature. We are body and spirit, and we experience the need to translate our feelings externally. We must pray with our whole being to give all power possible to our supplication.
2703 This need also corresponds to a divine requirement. God seeks worshippers in Spirit and in Truth, and consequently living prayer that rises from the depths of the soul. He also wants the external expression that associates the body with interior prayer, for it renders him that perfect homage which is his due.
2704 Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is internalized to the extent that we become aware of him "to whom we speak;"[4] Thus vocal prayer becomes an initial form of contemplative prayer.
ii) Meditation
2705 Meditation is above all a quest. The mind seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and that of history the page on which the "today" of God is written.
2706 To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own by confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. We pass from thoughts to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: "Lord, what do you want me to do?"
2707 There are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sower.[5] But a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along the one way of prayer: Christ Jesus.
2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.
iii) Contemplative Prayer
2709 What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: "Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us."[6] Contemplative prayer is ... when you see Jesus, and he sees you.
Contemplative prayer seeks him "whom my soul loves."[7] It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him, because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in him. In this inner prayer we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself.
2710 The choice of the time and duration of the prayer arises from a determined will, revealing the secrets of the heart. One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. One cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer, independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter, in poverty ant in faith.
2711 Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy: we "gather up:" the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.
2715 Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. "I look at him and he looks at me": this is what a certain peasant of Ars used to say to his holy cure about his prayer before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the "interior knowledge of our Lord," the more to love him and follow him.[11]
2716 Contemplative prayer is hearing the Word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the loving commitment of a child. It participates in the "Yes" of the Son become servant and the Fiat of God's lowly handmaid.
Cardinal Basil Hume said that prayer is not something that one has to learn and then do, but rather something that one learns by doing. We can enter into relationship with God through Jesus, and it will grow as we develop the prayer we instinctively already pray.
Prayer from the catechism in brief
2720 The Church invites the faithful to regular prayer: daily prayers, the Liturgy of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the feasts of the liturgical year.
2721 The Christian tradition comprises three major expressions of the life of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. They have in common the recollection of the heart.
2722 Vocal prayer, founded on the union of body and soul in human nature, associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart, following Christ's example of praying to his Father and teaching the Our Father to his disciples.
2723 Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. Its goal is to make our own in faith the subject considered, by confronting it with the reality of our own life.
2724 Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gaze of faith fixed on Jesus, an attentiveness to the Word of God, a silent love. It achieves real union with the prayer of Christ to the extent that it makes us share in his mystery.
The Jesus Prayer
The Jesus prayer is a very short, very simple prayer.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
The words of the Jesus prayer fall into two halves. The first half expresses the core truth of our faith in Jesus Christ, that he is the incarnate Son of the Creator God, and that we ascribe to Him Lordship of ourselves. The second half sums up the wonder of God's love, that though we are sinners, yet He has mercy upon us and forgives us. The first half is said as we take in our breath the second half when we exhale so our breathing becomes a prayer in itself. The prayer leads us into a balanced expression of both praise and thanksgiving to our Lord, yet also into penitence and confession, seeking his forgiveness and mercy.
As you pray the prayer, simply recite it over and over again, and you will discover three levels of prayer, first described by the 19th C. Russian spiritual teacher, Theophan. The prayer begins as words, then as we recite it further, we move onto pray the prayer as our own, owning the thoughts and expression of the prayer. Finally, our hearts take over the prayer, where the prayer is no longer a series of words and concepts, but gives way to a touching of our Spirit with God's Spirit.
Lectio Divina
"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." -- St. Jerome, A.D. 340-420
"To get the full flavour of an herb, it must be pressed between the fingers, so it is the same with the Scriptures; the more familiar they become, the more they reveal their hidden treasures and yield their indescribable riches."-- St. John Chrysostom, A.D. 347-407
"The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New" -- St. Augustine, A.D. 354-430
"All troubles of the Church, all the evils in the world, flow from this source: that men do not by clear and sound knowledge and serious consideration penetrate into the truths of Sacred Scripture." -- attributed to St. Theresa of Avila, A.D. 1515-1582
Lectio Divina means "Divine Reading" and refers specifically to a method of Scripture reading practiced by monastics since the beginning of the Church.
The early centrality of reading of Sacred Scripture, and then meditating and praying over its meaning, is evident in The Rule of Saint Benedict, written by the Great Saint to guide monastic life.
But it was an 11th c. Carthusian prior named Guigo who formalized Lectio Divina, describing the method in a letter written to a fellow religious. This letter, which has become known as Scala Paradisi -- the Stairway to Heaven -- describes a 4-runged ladder to Heaven, each rung being one of the four steps in his method of Bible reading. Those steps, and Guigo's brief descriptions of them, are:
- lectio (reading): "looking on Holy Scripture with all one's will and wit"
- meditatio (meditation): "a studious insearching with the mind to know what was before concealed through desiring proper skill"
- oratio (prayer): "a devout desiring of the heart to get what is good and avoid what is evil"
- contemplatio (contemplation): "the lifting up of the heart to God tasting somewhat of the heavenly sweetness and savour"
Prayer links below:
http://www.carmelite.org/index.php?nuc=content&id=72
http://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/
http://www.Daily Prayer Online
http://www.Sacred Space
http://www.Universalis
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