how to Pray to God

Most people have never been taught how to pray - much less how to pray effectively.

CCC 2744 “Prayer is a vital necessity. Proof to the contrary is no less convincing. If we do not allow the Spirit to lead us, we fall back into the slavery of sin. How can the Holy Spirit be our life if our heart is far from him?”

“Nothing is equal to prayer; for what is impossible it makes possible, what is difficult, easy…For it is impossible, utterly impossible, for the man who prays eagerly and invokes God ceaselessly ever to sin.” ~St. John Chrysostom

“Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned.” ~St. Alphonsus Liguori

“It is never true to say that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the less time there will always be for God. The time we have for anything depends on how much we value it. Thinking determines the use of time; time does not rule over thinking. The problem of spirituality is never, then, a question of time…For it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love.” ~Venerable Fulton Sheen

Prayer is integral in our relationship to Jesus Christ for it is, in itself, communion with God.

How To: The “R’s” of Meditation

St. Theresa of Avila mentioned that without a book written for spiritual reading on her lap, she found meditation almost impossible. The following is based on and inspired by her instruction to her nuns on how to practice meditation.

Read. What to read? Read a book written for spiritual meditation. Obvious examples are the Gospels and the Psalms. Spiritual meditation material is any book written for the purpose of bringing the soul into communion with God; to sit still with our being enjoying His Being. “My being with His Being sitting and being together.” Examples of spiritual reading: Fr. Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God; Fr. Jacques Philippe, Searching for and Maintaining Peace (actually, all of his books are excellent!); Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, Divine Intimacy; St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way; St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life; St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul.

Reflect. Read until something strikes you. Then, stop and put the book down and reflect on what you just read. Why did this passage or word strike you? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Cease being in a hurry. Let yourself be still and peaceful, soaking in this point for as long as possible. Allow any internal and spontaneous conversation from the depths of your soul to bubble up.

Resolution. Resolve to apply the grace from this meditation to change you. This means to put into practice something concrete revealed to you by the Holy Spirit that He wants you to change. Another method is to take something from your prayer, a phrase or word that struck you, and repeat it throughout the day. This will focus your mind on prayer, which will focus your thoughts and heart on God-like actions.

Problems. What happens if I find nothing that strikes me? Then read just a paragraph, stop, then re-read the paragraph slowly. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive His insights. It may be helpful to have a pencil near you to circle any word or phrase that offers you any divine information or insight. After circling a point or two, now you have something on which to reflect.

Tip: Meditation is often called Mental Prayer because it involves our imagination. Traditional devotions like the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross are meditation because they engage our imagination, which places our mind with the Lord, which opens the faculties of the soul to be with Him in spirit.

Use technology to help you set aside time to pray and to remember your resolution. Use timers, notes, reminders, etc. on phone or electronic calendars to sound, thus giving you helpful reminders.

As you progress in meditation, however, your prayer will involve your affections more and more, which is why the spiritual masters talk about Affective Prayer.

how Catholics Pray the Rosary

The overarching essence of the Rosary is that it is an exquisitely contemplative prayer, even though it is accompanied by repetitive vocal prayer. The idea is that as we say the Hail Mary we place ourselves in the company of our Mother and with her we contemplate the face of her Son in the context of the various Christian mysteries.

From the earliest days of the Church, the faithful had the habit of praying a series of Our Fathers and Hail Marys. But under the inspiration of Our Lady, Saint Dominic was unique in the way he used the Rosary as a powerful tool of evangelization in the 12th century.

Dominic went into villages, gathered people, and shared with them the life of Christ. After a short instruction on the faith, he would recite ten Hail Marys with those gathered. As Mary promised, it proved to be a most fruitful form of preaching. Furthermore, Mary said this method would be one of the most powerful weapons against future errors and in future difficulties.

Our Lady is calling us here at Holy Family School of Faith to use the same method.

We invite family and friends to join us in our homes, offer hospitality, a meal, drinks, coffee, dessert, we engage in good conversation, and then we invite them to pray the Rosary with us.

We pray the Rosary in a new way that is actually a really old way introduced by Dominic. We share a short teaching from the Word of God, the teaching of Jesus, and then we pray one decade of the Rosary – and we do this five times. Then, the conversation can continue by asking one another what struck us during the meditations.

It worked for St. Dominic and Our Lady promised it would work in the future. Want to learn more? Discover the history of Saint Dominic and the Rosary in this meditation from Holy Family School of Faith: