Fidelis Ecclesia
No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid the supreme duty to proclaim Christ to all peoples.
Spirituality of St. John Paul II
The Great Evangelizer
Advocacy of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Star of the New Evangelization
"Do Not Be Afraid"
Totus Tuus
Forming Apostles
The Spiritual Journey
Heading 6
Knowing Your Faith
Prayer is a two-way spiritual conversation with God. While we are familiar with offering prayers of adoration, thanksgiving and intercession, we must learn to listen to what God is saying to us.
How do we start a conversation with God? Ask him to speak with you. Just as we might initiate a conversation with a friend by asking, do you have a minute to talk, we can also ask Our Lord the same thing. Talk to him and share your inner most thoughts with Him, ask Him for an answer and then listen.
Sure, He’s God and we’re not but He loves us more than we could ever comprehend. Just like we want to spend time with those we love, so God wants to spend time with us. He wants to hear what’s on our minds and share His consolation and wisdom with us.
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2697 explains....
"Prayer is the life of the new heart. It ought to animate us at every moment. But we tend to forget him who is our life and our all. This is why the Fathers of the spiritual life in the Deuteronomic and prophetic traditions insist that prayer is a remembrance of God often awakened by the memory of the heart "We must remember God more often than we draw breath." But we cannot pray "at all times" if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it. These are the special times of Christian prayer, both in intensity and duration."
"We must remember God more often than we draw breath."
St. Gregory of Nazianzus
Types of Prayer
Types of Prayer include vocal, meditation and contemplative.
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Vocal Prayer
Communicates our problems & petitions & gives adoration and Thanksgiving to Our Lord.
"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." CCC 2700
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Meditation
We use our senses, something we can sense creates desire or emotion through thoughts and images,
For instaze at crucifix or holy art read scripture, or catechesis, rosary.
"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." CCC2705
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Contemplation
To search for God who loves us, to go deep within to find the one who loves us. Realize that the Holy Spirit has a chapel in our souls.
"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. Contemplative prayer seeks him "whom my soul loves." 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." CCC 2709