Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God's thirst ...

Whether we realize it or not,
prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours.
God thirsts that we may thirst for God.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2560
People ask me how to pray better,
what can help their prayer life
- and the answer is “Pray.”
Thomas Merton
Principles of prayer
• Prayer is a gift from God. We pray because God calls to us.
• Prayer is not an obligation as much as an opportunity.
• There is no ‘wrong way’ to pray.
Why pray?
• As St. Augustine said, You made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. We
can search the entire world and never be as ‘at home’ as we will be in communion with God.
• Prayer helps us to become holy. The closer we draw to God, the further we get from what drags us
into sin and trouble.
• We begin to see the world as God sees the world - the value of each person, the true worth of our
work and relationships, the compassion that each person needs.
What ‘problems’ can arise in prayer, and what can I do about them?
• Not finding the time. The truth is that we make time for what is important to us - exercise, a
favorite TV show, spending time talking with friends, a hobby. You might need to be creative about
finding the best time for yourself, but it is there in the day.
• Not knowing how to begin. One of the best reasons to be part of a four thousand year old
tradition is that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ways to begin. Do some investigating
and experimenting to find the prayer style that fits you at this time in your life.
• Getting distracted. This is part of being human. Don’t panic. Just return to the spirit of prayer. All
of the great saints complained about this. What made them great saints is probably that they didn’t
get hung up on this, but kept on.
• Dryness, not feeling that anything or anybody is there. This is another common experience of the
great saints - St. John of the Cross wrote movingly of the Long Dark Night of the Soul. Mother
Teresa had a life changing experience of Christ, then nothing for the next 60 years of her life.
These are the extremes, but they tell us that this isn’t uncommon. Again, the way to deal with this
is to keep on going. A regular time for prayer in one’s life keeps one on track, and eventually the
dryness lifts. The other thing to remember is that yearning for God in the dark is as much a prayer
as any kind of transcendent communion.
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Finding what works for you
• Routines and reminders. Build it into your day, make an appointment with yourself. Use your
phone to help you! Set an alarm. Use the timer. Pay attention to your ‘best time’, when you are
alert and relaxed.
• Experiment with the best place and posture. Some people like to slip into a church. Others pray
best in their living room. Some pray well on the bus or train or car. Others need to take a walk.
Find out what suits you the best.
• Discover if you need quiet or music, something to read, something to focus on, something to
hold. We all have different ways we process reality best. Some can listen to a podcast and get lost
in it; others find that the player is doing the prayer, while they are thinking of something else.
Some need to close their eyes. Others need to focus on a cross or candle. Find what works best for
you.
Building a daily pattern of prayer
• Commend the day to God. Take some time at the beginning of your day to put the day into God’s
hands. Why? In our baptism and confirmation we are consecrated to God. This form of prayer
helps to remind us that we and everything that we do during the day is important to and in the sight
of God. How? A traditional way is to make a ‘daily offering.’ Here is an example: God, our
Father, I offer You my day. I offer You my prayers, thoughts, words, actions, joys, and sufferings in
union with the Heart of Jesus, who continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist for the salvation of the
world. May the Holy Spirit, Who guided Jesus, be my guide and my strength today so that I may
witness to your love. With Mary, the mother of our Lord and the Church, I pray for all Apostles of
Prayer and for the prayer intentions proposed by the Holy Father this month. Amen.
(Find out more at www.apostleshipofprayer.org)
• Praise and thanksgiving. Why? This sort of goes without saying. How? Any prayer of wonder
and praise will do. Three traditional prayers of the church may help you. The first is the doxology,
an all purpose prayer of praise: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it
was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. The other two are found in chapter 1 of Luke’s
Gospel. Zechariah’s prayer, the Benedictus, is prayed in the morning and Mary’s prayer, the
Magnificat, is prayed in the evening.
The Benedictus
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of
the house of his servant David.
Through his holy prophets he promised of old
that he would save us from our enemies, from
the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers and
to remember his holy covenant.
This was the oath he swore to our father
Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our
enemies, free to worship him without fear,
holy and righteous in his sight all the days of
our life.
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of
the Most High; for you will go before the Lord
to prepare his way, to give his people
knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of
their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God the
dawn from on high shall break upon us, to
shine on those who dwell in darkness and the
shadow of death, and to guide our feet into
the way of peace.
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The Magnificat
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my
spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has
looked with favor on his lowly servant. From
this day all generations will call me blessed: the
Almighty has done great things for me, and holy
is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him in every
generation. He has shown the strength of his
arm, he has scattered the proud in their
conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their
thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has.
filled the hungry with good things, and the
rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers, to
Abraham and his children for ever.
• Intercessory prayer. This is just praying for your own needs, the needs of others you know and for
the wider world. Why? We are baptized into the priesthood of Christ. What that means is that we
are called to pray for the world, bringing its cares, concerns and troubles to the throne of God.
How? There are set forms, like the General Intercessions at mass, but the form can take any that
you prefer.
• ‘Mantra’ prayer or practicing the presence of God. These are short, repeated prayers which help
to focus the mind and spirit. Why? We are told that we should ‘pray always.’ One way to do this
is to have a ‘background tape’ of prayer running as we go through our day. Repeating a short
prayer of this type makes it part of our consciousness, running through our mind, and then rising to
more conscious prayer. How? The rosary functions as this kind of prayer and meditation. Another
is the ‘Jesus’ prayer, popular in Eastern Christianity: Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy
on me. Some choose a favorite psalm verse.
• Making use of the ‘classics’ - the traditional prayer of the church. Coming from the Jewish
synagogue tradition, the church used the Psalms and the cycle of readings in the Hebrew Scriptures
from the its very beginning. When the Christian Scriptures were collected, the whole was
organized into a cycle. We still make use of a cycle of prayer from the Bible. Why? The ‘food’ for
one’s prayer is in communion with the church throughout the world. One is praying in
communion with millions of other Catholic Christians. How? Some hear the Scriptures when they
come to daily mass. Even if you don’t come to the Eucharist, you can still read and pray with the
daily readings. Others pray the Psalms using the Liturgy of the Hours. You can find the readings at
www.usccb.org/nab and the Liturgy of the Hours at www.divineoffice.org
• Examen. This form of prayer was developed by St. Ignatius Loyola, as a way to look for the
‘footprints of God’ in one’s day and seek help to be a more faithful disciple. Why? Socrates said,
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” This prayer helps one to see how God has been present,
and also the ways that one can live a more authentic Christian life. How? Briefly, one looks at the
good of the day, ‘rewinding’ the day like a video tape. Thanks God for the good and look for any
sin or failings. Then, ask for God’s help to do better the next day.
• Prayers at bedtime. In sleep we have comparatively little control over our lives. It is one time of
day when it seems easiest to place ourselves in God’s hands, in trust. Why? Our lives are in God’s
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hands all the time. It doesn’t hurt to realize it! How? There is no one way to do this. A traditional
prayer of the church is the third canticle in Luke, chapter 2, the song of Simeon or Nunc Dimittis:
Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the
salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people, Israel.
Web sites you might want to try:
www.usccb.org/nab - the readings for the mass for every day
The imissal app brings the prayers of the mass and readings to your smartphone.
www.divineoffice.org - the Liturgy of the Hours in online and podcast form. There is also an app.
Sacredspace.ie - a site produced by the Irish Jesuits guiding one through a meditation on the daily
gospel reading.
Creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html - this web site has a number of resources,
including a way to pray through this season of Lent
Pray-as-you-go.org - A site with a downloadable MP3 each day to guide prayer and meditation.
www.apostleshipofprayer.org - A spirituality of joining your prayer with millions of others
throughout the world.
Coming up in this series
Week two (March 19/20): The Rosary: Why and How
The Rosary has been a beloved and traditional prayer for a reason. Find out why, and what
it might do for you.
Week three (March 26/27): The Examen
"The unexamined life is not worth living"? Well, learn how to find the worth in yours. Using
this prayer to find the 'footprints' of God in your life.
Week four (April 2/3): Lectio Divina
This form of 'sacred reading' of the Scriptures has been practiced for 1500 years. If it has
worked for that long, perhaps it is time to try it.
Week five (April 9/10): The Stations of the Cross
Walking with Jesus through his Passion and Death was one of the earliest forms of 'virtual
reality.' How can you share in the journey and come closer to the Lord?
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