How to Pray and Meditate

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Welcome to the second episode of our journey to deeper friendship with Jesus and Mary in prayer. Today, we pray the Rosary from the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed the night before he suffered and died for us.

We are at Gethsemane. It is here that Jesus said to the eight apostles, stay awake and pray so that you will not be put to the test. They fell asleep, and when Peter was arrested, they all forsook him and fled. We do not want to be that way when we are on trial. When our temptation hits, we do not want to forsake Jesus and flee. So here in this place, we must learn how to pray.

If you had a person who only came to you to tell you what they wanted constantly, would you consider them a real friend? Or would you rather just avoid that person? That's not the kind of friend we want to be with Jesus. It's not a real friendship. I want you to have a deep friendship with Jesus so that when you die, he says, “Oh! I couldn't wait for you to get here so that we could be faced to face.” Now, Teresa of Avila says that prayer is just friendship with God. Prayer is taking time to be alone with Him who we know loves us. And that's what friends do, don't they? They spend time together talking, listening, just being together. Peter and the apostles didn't pray, they fell asleep in Gethsemane. Then Peter denied that he was even a friend of Jesus.

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By vocal prayer, we speak to God, Our Father. We listen to him, and meditation is like having coffee with a friend. We set a specific time and place with enough time for a leisurely conversation. If you were going to have coffee with a friend, how much time would you give them? Five minutes?

You give them at least 30 times to talk, to share, to listen, and to understand. To just enjoy time together. The great master of prayer is Teresa of Avila, and she gives three steps to listening to God in meditation. First, we read something or hear something from the word of God. That's why we give you a little something before each decade of the rosary and then whatever strikes you, that's what you think about because that's what the Lord is saying.

He wants us to listen to whatever captures our attention, but we must think about it. Thinking is hard work, and we so rarely do it that we let our feelings take over. Our lives are not supposed to be controlled by feelings, but by thinking. We should think about what struck us from the word of God, and then end every meditation with a resolution. This is what we do in the Rosary podcast. Our Lady knows we have a small attention span, so, she gives us just enough time with the Our Father and 10 Hail Mary’s to listen and think. Then she gives us a little break, and another little set to listen and think. Think about what struck you during the decade and you'll be listening to God.

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Every meditation should conclude with a resolution. Your resolution should be something simple, practical, and concrete that you put into practice based on your meditation.

Jesus said to his disciples: 'It is not those who say to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?" Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!

'Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock. But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand.

These are the words of Jesus who built his house on sand, rain came down, floods, rose, gales blew and struck that house and it fell and what a fall it had. Jesus is very clear. If you listen to his words and do not put them into practice, it's of no use. You will not be his friend and when the storm comes, your house will fall.

See, we don't pray so that God will change. I know that's a surprise to you. We're not praying to change God. We're praying so that God can change us. But we will only change if we put into practice what He says. That's the resolution.

Four

Now you probably didn't expect me to bring this up in a rosary meditation, especially in the Cave of Gethsemane.

I love Dion Sanders. If you can remember him, he was from the eighties and nineties, an all-pro football and baseball played in the Super Bowl and a World Series. He's now the coach for the Colorado Buffaloes, and he's a great lover of Jesus. I love this talk he gave to his players. He said,

If you don't watch a film, you can't go to the higher level. If you want to play in the Pros, you have to watch the film. You can't go to the higher level without it.

We watch the films so that we can see our mistakes and we can see the strategy of the other team. We must watch the film of our life every day in a daily examination of conscience. We need to see our mistakes and learn from them because those are also the tactics of the enemy.

The devil knows what your weaknesses are, and he gets you to fall into them every day. You don't watch the film, so how can you go to the higher level? You must watch the film. You must do a daily examination of conscience. You must see where your mistakes are, and you have got to see the tactics of the devil. Then you need to make a game plan for the next day. A little examination of conscience starts with gratitude.

Say, “These are the things God that I'm thankful to you for”, then find where you failed to do. Look at what was right and where you did what was wrong, and then make a game plan. Watch the film, learn, grow. I want you to go to the higher level. Ok?

Five

You know that our mother Mary has come repeatedly over the years asking us to pray the rosary every day? Not just occasionally or one or two days a week. Every day. We must learn to become comfortable with silence. Mother Teresa said in the silence of the heart, God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak with you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself.

The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace. It all begins with silence. So, practice cultivating times of silence and listening to God, and then you will be souls of deep prayer.