Prayer Life with God

You are our Father you live in heaven

We talk to you Father you are good

What is prayer?

Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the

requesting of good things from God.

St. John Damascene CCC 2590

For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;it is a simple look turned toward

heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love,

embracing both trial and joy.

St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897

The Why of prayer?

»You have made us for yourself O Lord »and our hearts are restless until they

rest in you St Augustine (354-430)

• Because I cannot rely on myself I rely on God twenty-four hours a day Mother Teresa

• Much knowledge is not what satisfies the soul and gives it contentment, but rather interior meditation on things and savouring them St

Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

The How of prayerAbraham listened to God

and went where God called

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless

you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will

bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and

in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went,

as the Lord had told him. Gen 12.1-4

• Moses listened to God speaking in the bush that was burning but never consumed. Ex3

• Prophet Samuel ‘Speak Lord your servant is listening’ 1 Sam 3.9-10

• David leads God’s chosen people and builds the temple as the House of prayer. He compiles the Psalms as the prayer of God’s people.

Jesus Christ

The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer. CCC2598

Prayer with words

• Formal– Our Father Mt 5– Hail Mary Lk 1.42– Gloria Lk 2.14

• Informal– Father forgive them for they know not what they

do Lk 23.34– Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, I

thank you for you have heard me Jn11.41

Prayer without words

Jesus went into the hills to pray and spent the whole night in prayer with God Lk 6.12

MeditativeContemplative

Praying does not mean listening to yourself speak. Praying means calming down, being still and waiting until you hear God. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

• Prayer is noting more than a close sharing between friends: it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

• I look at him and he looks at me A Peasant of Ars (1850)

Posture in Prayer

• Stand• Sit• Kneel• Hands together• Hands held in orans

Symbols in Prayer

The What of prayer

• Blessing• Petition• Intercession• Thanksgiving• Praise

Blessing

• Our response to God’s gifts: we bless God who first blesses us and fills us with his gifts.

• God blesses us: we bless God

Petition

• We ask for God’s life to be active on earth, despite our shortcomings

• The greatest petition is ‘Thy kingdom come’ • We ask for pardon • With humility and trust we ask for all our

needs either spiritual or material.

Intercession

• Asking God for the benefit of another.• It conforms us to the prayer of Jesus who

intercedes with the father for all people, especially sinners. Intercession extends to our enemies.

• We pray for the needs of all the world

Thanksgiving

• We recognise the action of God in our world, especially in our need

• The Church gives thanks unceasingly, especially in the Eucharist in which Christ allows her to participate in his own thanksgiving to the Father.

Praise

• The recognition that God is God. • Praise is wonderfully disinterested prayer: it

sings Gods praise for his own sake and gives him glory purely because he is God.

What is this all for?

To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfil by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1.11-12

To Hold and to Share

May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and

transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the

forgiveness of sins. Col 1.11

The Great Commission

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have

commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Mt 28.19