PRAYER 3 rd February 2013 WHAT is prayer

PRAYER 3 rd February 2013

• WHAT is prayer? • WHY pray? • Practical tips on HOW to pray?

WHAT is prayer?

Prayer is a relationship � “ the living and true God tirelessly calls each person to that mysterious encounter known as prayer. In prayer, the faithful God’s initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response. ” CCC 2567

Prayer is a search for GOD, not ourselves! � “And he did this so that all nations might seek the deity and, by feeling their way towards him, may find him. ” - Acts 17: 27 � “In Your light, God, we see light” - Psalm 36: 9

Prayer is the work of the Holy Spirit � � “Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone. ” - CCC 2726 “The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expressed our plea in a way that could never be put into words” - Romans 8: 26

Prayer is held together by the Life of the Church � *“The Feasts of the Church have been instituted so as to render God the supreme worship of adoration, praise, thanksgiving and reparation. In them everything has been well disposed and adapted to circumstances- the ceremonies, the words, the singing, the outward ordering in all its details- that they can make the mysteries, truths or acts which we celebrate penetrate deeply into the mind and bring us to corresponding feelings and actions. .

. . . If the faithful were well instructed in this matter and celebrated the feasts in the spirit desired by the Church when she instituted them, a renewable and noticeable increase of faith, of piety, of religious instruction would be obtained, and, in consequence, the interior life of Christians would be found to be reanimated and improved. ” - Pope Pius X Catechism of Christian Doctrine, 1913

Why pray?

Prayer conforms us to Christ. � “And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect (ie. God); this is the work of the Lord who is spirit. ” - 2 Cor 3: 18

Prayer gives us the eternal perspective � “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? - Matthew 6: 25 -27

We pray because we want to! � � “O God you are my God for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting! My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water. ” - Psalm 62. “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of hosts! My soul is longing and yearning, yearning for the courts of the Lord. ” - Psalm 83

How should I pray? (Some practical tips!)

� � � � Please Never Let People Say Running’s For Everyone! = Perseverance = Notes = Love = Plan = Silence = Relax = Faith = Eat and sleep

Perservere � “One makes time for the Lord, with the firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. ” - CCC 2710

Note-making! � � Pen and paper by you when you pray! Note distracted thoughts for later.

Love � How we pray is closely connected to how we live.

Plan times to pray � “We turn our mind to the task of prayer at appointed hours, since that desire grows lukewarm, so to speak, from our involvement in other concerns and occupations. We remind ourselves through the words of prayer to focus our attention on the object of our desire; otherwise, the desire that began to grow lukewarm may grow chill altogether” - St Augustine

Be silent � “Contemplative prayer is nothing more than a close sharing between friends- to be alone with Him who we know loves us” - St Theresa of Avila