Featuring teens from Streetsboro St. Joan of Arc

Youth Group ...

With

in Mind

YOU th

PRAYERBy Nancilynn GattaSpecial to the Exponent

Prayer is having a conversation with God or the saints, either silently or aloud – a way to communicate and feel closer to the Lord. Recently, youth group members of Streetsboro St. Joan of Arc Parish discussed what prayer is, why they pray and how they do it. “During family events, we say grace, and we were taught to say a prayer before bed,” said Brayden Malloy, a junior at Streetsboro High School. The common prayer that the inter-viewees said they were taught for bedtime has the first line of “Now I lay me down to sleep,” and continues “I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” “When I was little I used to say that prayer,” continued Brayden, but he has found that, as a high school student, he is not always able to pray at night. “Usually when I get home from wrestling practice, I just flop on the bed and go to sleep,” he said, noting that he does “try to pray when I remember.” “I normally say grace before din-ner,” said Caitlin Wegener, a sophomore at Streetsboro. She was taught the traditional prayer recited by Catholics before meals: “Bless us, O Lord, and these, thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.” It is a prayer of thanksgiving for the food that the person, family or gathering of individu-als is about to enjoy. As students have discovered as they have become older, they don’t need to be at dinner or preparing to go to sleep to have a conversation with God. “I pray when I drive,” said Marley Berczik, a recent Streetsboro High gradu-ate. Caitlin commented, “Before I go out for the day, I say an everyday prayer in my head.” Prayer can be something that has been passed down through generations (structured) or an improvised conversation with God (unstructured). “I prefer more structured prayers,” said Brayden. Besides prayers that are recited during Mass, common structured prayers include The Lord’s Prayer/Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Act of Contrition. Say-ing the rosary is also a structured form of prayer, involving a number of prayers that

coincide with the beads on the rosary. In his Jan. 9, 2019, general audi-ence, Pope Francis explained the Our Fa-ther in more detail. In a Catholic News Ser-vice article, the pope said that, in teaching his followers to pray the ‘Our Father,’ Jesus “explains … in what words and with what feelings they must turn to God.” The Gospels of Matthew and of Luke show Jesus saying that people should not pray in order to be noticed by others. We should also not think that using many correct words will create a response in God. Jesus notes that God will not only answer our prayers, as a loving father, but also God knows our needs before we even vocalize them. Pope Francis stressed that Jesus’ entire life was “steeped in prayer…. Every

step of Jesus’ life was pushed by the breath of the Spirit, who guides him in each of his actions.” The Streetsboro teens said they are not self-centered when they pray. “Typically, I don’t pray for my-self, but for others,” said Kylee Malloy, a Streetsboro sophomore. Sam Berczik, also a sophomore at Streetsboro, agreed. “I pray for others more than [for] myself,” he said. There are situations when the teens said they do pray for themselves. “I pray for patience,” said Marley. Kylee said she accepts that things are the way they are when there is no dif-ferent result to her prayers. The Serenity Prayer, which many people acknowledge finding helpful, reflects this sentiment:

“God grant me the serenityTo accept the things I cannot change;Courage to change the things I can;And the wisdom to know the difference.”

The teens noted that, sometimes when they pray for something, God seems to answer in the way He sees as the best result, which may not be the outcome they were seeking. “I prayed for a little brother and I have two younger sisters,” smiled

Brayden. Pope Francis has said that we can be absolutely positive that “God will re-spond” to our prayers – according to God’s timing – and that Christians are called by Christ to “insist and not give up.” In his Jan. 9 address, he added that “God is a father who never ignores His chil-dren when they call to Him in times of suf-fering, loneliness and despair.” The Scriptures show that Jesus also prays for others, including “for Peter who will soon deny Him,” Pope Francis noted. “This consoles us, knowing that Jesus prays for us, he prays for me, he prays for each one of us so that our faith does not fail…. We can also say to Jesus: ‘You are praying for me; continue to pray because I need it.’ [Pray] like that, with courage,” Pope Francis recommended. “Prayer always changes reality. Let us not forget that … It either changes things or changes our hearts, but it always changes,” he said. As their faith and prayer lives have grown, the St. Joan of Arc teens said they have talked to God in church during Mass, in silent petitions, before meals, prior to sleeping, or at any time or any place they

find themselves during the day. The most important thing to re-member, they said, is to keep the commu-nication open, in order to strengthen their relationship with God. Doing so can help them experience peace, express gratitude or gain insight on how to proceed with chal-lenges in their life.

Talking confidently with God – and not giving up

June 28, 2019

Prayer is having a conversation with God or the saints, either silently or aloud. Prayers can be either structured or unstructured, such as a simple conversation with God. While God always answers prayers, He answers in the way He sees as best, not necessarily in the way we are seeking. Our Father always “knows best.”

10 | The Catholic Exponent