HTS PT1 Prayer

St. Therese

• Prayer is a natural faculty, so we should instinctively know how to pray.
• However, we do not know how to pray as we ought:
  • Holy Spirit teaches us
  • We only learn how to pray through praying
  • We only learn how to pray well through praying much

Like rich food, too much prayer at once can make us "sick"

• Growth/Depth in prayer has to be built on successive foundations

Whole is greater than parts: prayer > prayers

• we can say prayers without praying
• However, the Holy Spirit uses prayers to lead us to prayer

Goal of Prayer

Goal of prayer: intimate union with the Trinity

• comes in many forms
  • whatever centers us and focuses us toward this union may be called "prayer"
  • fishing, shooting hoops even

Types of Prayer

• Public Prayer
  • Liturgical Prayer: the summit toward which all other prayer is oriented (Mass, Sacraments, Liturgy of the Hours)
  • Communal Prayer: in a group "where two or three…" (Rosary, saying novenas, Stations of the Cross, family prayer)
• Individual Prayer
  • Word Prayer
    • our own words
    • "rote" prayers
  • Mental Prayer (active thinking)
    • Ignatian lectio divina: insert self into scripture
  • Contemplative Prayer
    • Repetition and calming, without thinking too much
    • Just being present

Roles of Prayer

• God is the primary actor: everything we do is fundamentally a response to something that God has already done.
• Spirit teaches us (individually and the Church) how to pray
  • unites our prayers to those of Jesus
• Jesus prays for us (both on our behalf and us as recipient) and intercedes for us as Priest
  • He prays in us as head of his body, the Church
  • We pray to him as God

prayer is communion with the Holy Spirit in us, through Jesus, to the Father.Pope Benedict XVI

Discipline in Prayer

• Fidelity and regularity
• Never "I feel like praying (or not praying) today"
• Activity of plopping when all else fails: "plopping your frickin' ass on a pew in a chapel" (5 min… 10 min…)
• Don't fall into habit of Palagianism
  • Don't expect certain outcome (quid pro quo) from saying certain prayers
  • Don't create a "checklist" of prayers to do that closes us off to receiving in prayer
    • Prayer is foremost a receptivity to God's grace
  • "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:11)
  • Don't let listening become one of those "checklist items" ... Be an attentive listener
    • Be willing to put down your own "prayerful activity to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you into deeper communion

Distractions

When our thoughts begin to wander (involuntarily),

• unity is not broken
• effectiveness measured by desire (our desire to pray is itself a form of prayer)

Sources of distractions:

1. Satan
   • feeling guilty or unworthy
2. Ourselves
   • lack of preparedness or disposition
   • unfinished business
3. God

Dealing with distraction:

• write it down (never pray without paper, journal, electronic device in my case)
• engage the distraction and bring it into prayer