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Discipleship Habit #1: Pray Every Day
Week 13 Offering ourselves, just as we are Opening Prayer Lord Jesus, we praise You for You are patient! You lovingly wait for us to come to You and long to listen to us. Forgive us for the times in our lives when we have not drawn close to You in prayer. In Your Scripture You tell us, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6 - 7) We claim this promise. Thank You for being so available to us. Help us to know that You long to meet with us in prayer. Lord, teach us how to pray. Give us the desire to get to know You in prayer every day and the discipline to guard our prayer time when busyness tempts us away from You. Jesus, we trust in You. We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN Reflection: From Fr. Thomas Keating, Open Heart, Open Mind All true prayer is based on the conviction of the presence of the Spirit in us and of His unfailing and continual inspiration. Every prayer in this sense is prayer in the Spirit. Still, it seems more accurate to reserve the term prayer in the Spirit, for that prayer in which the inspiration of the Spirit is given directly to our spirit without the intermediary of our own reflections or acts of the will. In other words, the Spirit prays in us and we consent. According to the Baltimore catechism, “Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God.” In using this ancient formula it is important to keep in mind that it is not we who do the lifting. In every kind of prayer the raising of the mind and heart to God can only be the work of the Spirit. In prayer inspired by the Spirit we let ourselves flow with the lifting movement and drop all reflections. Reflection is an important preliminary to prayer, but it is not prayer. Prayer is not only the offering of our interior acts to God: it is the offering of ourselves, of who we are just as we are. Spend a few minutes now simply raising your mind and heart to God, offering God yourself, just as you are. Praying with Centering Prayer To be a disciple of Jesus means to live the way Jesus lived and surrender our lives to our Father. Jesus invites us to sharpen our spiritual attentiveness, to see with the eyes of Christ, so that we can love as Jesus loves. So often; however, our own thoughts and perceptions get in the way and trip us up. We need help re-aligning our minds to Christ’s to help us live the Gospel message. We need a way to put our mind, our attention and intention, in our heart. Centering Prayer is the tool we need to help us live out of our hearts – it gives us a way of letting go of our own stuff so that we are able to rest in the presence of God. Through Centering Prayer, we practice becoming aware of, then surrendering, thoughts to God so that this surrender becomes a habit and, eventually, a way of life. Unlike any other form of meditation, Centering Prayer doesn’t focus on a particular word or thought. Rather, Centering Prayer is done with intention, not attention. By turning our intention to our awareness of God, our attention does not go to an object or focus on any one thing. This is an “objectless awareness” and surrender to the gaze of God. Many who practice Centering Prayer struggle with their thoughts and complain that they cannot stop their “monkey-mind”. They find themselves getting “hooked” into a stream of thought, becoming frustrated with their inability to clear their mind. This line of reasoning; however, implies that we are asked to renounce our thoughts, push them away as if that’s even possible. Instead, Centering Prayer is a gentle surrender of thoughts, a letting go, a release and turning over of thoughts and returning our awareness to God. Practitioners of this form of prayer often use what is called a “sacred word” which acts as a windshield wiper to our attention. When one realizes that a thought has brought his or her attention to something, the sacred word brings awareness to the need to release the thought and surrender attention to God. We do not do this on our own. In Centering Prayer we receive an enormous help from our subconscious. All we have to have is the willingness to be reminded that we are thinking; our hearts do the rest. In fact, the real gift of Centering Prayer is done in the noticing and surrender of the thought so that we can then return our awareness to God. The Guidelines of Centering Prayer:
Closing Prayer St. Teresa of Calcutta on Prayer I don’t think there is anyone who needs God’s help and grace as much as I do. Sometimes I feel so helpless and so weak. I think this is why God uses me. Because I cannot depend on my own strength, I rely on Him twenty-four hours a day. All of us must cling to God through prayer. My secret is simple: I pray. Through prayer, I become one in love with Christ. I realize that praying to Him is loving Him. We cannot find God in noise or agitation. Nature: trees, flowers, and grass grow in silence. The stars, the moon, and the sun move in silence. What is essential is not what we say, but what God tells others through us. In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice. Silence of our eyes, Silence of our ears. Silence of our minds, …In the silence of the heart God will speak. View St. Teresa of Calcutta’s message to those struggling with prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WupB22jXUcY&t=4s
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 Discipleship Habit #1: Pray Every Day
Week 12 Grow into Jesus AND Each Other Opening Prayer Lord Jesus, we praise You for You are patient! You lovingly wait for us to come to You and long to listen to us. Forgive us for the times in our lives when we have not drawn close to You in prayer. In Your Scripture You tell us, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6 - 7) We claim this promise. Thank You for being so available to us. Help us to know that You long to meet with us in prayer. Lord, teach us how to pray. Give us the desire to get to know You in prayer every day and the discipline to guard our prayer time when busyness tempts us away from You. Jesus, we trust in You. We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN Reflection As turning to Jesus in prayer becomes a habit in your life, you will not only grow in friendship with Him, you will also grow into deeper friendship with His people, both near and far. We grow into Jesus and each other at the same time. But the only way for any of this to start happening is for us to start praying. We need to start making prayer a habit if it isn’t already. Like the mustard seed, we need to start small so Jesus can help our prayer grow into something big. So, practice taking at least 10 minutes a day to have a conversation with the Lord. Speak to Him from your heart and listen to Him dwelling in your soul. Foster the habit of personal prayer to encounter Christ! This month, we explore how Jesus prayed to His Father. He had to find time amidst all the needs of others. He had to find a quiet place, to go away. He had to carve out time for God in both his schedule and in his heart. Jesus faced some of the same challenges in prayer as we do today. Jesus invites you, here and now, to a life of deeper prayer and a life of deeper discipleship. If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, the door will be opened for you. What small 10 minute activity can you put aside to make room for your conversation with Jesus each day? Praying with Scripture Mark 1:32 - 39 When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to Jesus all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and He drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew Him. Rising very early before dawn, Jesus left and went off to a deserted place, where He prayed. Simon and those who were with Him pursued Him and on finding Him said, “Everyone is looking for You.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose, have I come.” So, He went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee. Reflection At the beginning of this passage, what time is it? Based on the text, what kind of a day has it been for Jesus? How do you think he was feeling at the end of it? What obstacles did Jesus have to overcome to be able to spend time in prayer? What obstacles in your life make it difficult for you to spend time in prayer? In this passage, what time did Jesus choose to pray? What time of day works best for you to pray? In this passage, where did Jesus choose to pray? What physical space or place in your home or community can you go to pray daily? What might you need to do to make that place an easier place for you to pray? How do you think Jesus is calling you right now through this passage? How are you going to respond? Praying with Lectio Divina The Scriptures are God’s Word revealed to his people. He continues to speak to us through them today. Learning to listen to God speak through Scripture is like learning any new language. It takes practice. One way the Church has taught us to listen to God speaking through the Scripture is Lectio Divina. Begin by selecting a passage from Sacred Scripture with which you may wish to pray. Some suggestions might be: John 10:1 – 21: Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and He knows me by name. Luke 5:27 – 32: Jesus comes to people just like me. Luke 15:1-7: Jesus comes after us, even when we’re lost. Mark 9:14 – 29: Sometimes I don’t have enough faith; help me have more, O Lord. Matthew 14:13 – 21: Jesus heals and feeds all hungry people. Isaiah 43:1 – 7: You are precious in my eyes, and I love You. Lectio Divina can also be used to reflect on a spiritual writing: The task of taking God to others is not that of handing somebody a Bible or some religious literature, but of transubstantiating God the way we do with the food we eat. We have to digest something and turn it, physically, into the flesh of our own bodies so it becomes part of what we look like. If we would do this with the word of God, others would not have to read the Bible to see what God is like, they would need only to look at our faces and our lives to see God. (The Holy Longing, p. 102) Lectio Divina method:
Closing Prayer Show me, O Lord, Your mercy, and delight my heart with it. Let me find You whom I so longingly seek. See, here is the man/woman whom the robbers seized, mishandled, and left half dead on the road to Jericho. O kindhearted Samaritan come to my aid! I am the sheep who wandered into the wilderness – seek after me and bring me home again to Your fold. Do with me what You will, that I may stay by You all the days of my life and praise You with all those who are with You in heaven for all eternity. St. Jerome Discipleship Habit #1: Pray Every Day
Week 11 Lord, Teach Me to Pray We have spent the first three months of our Discipleship Journey exploring our relationship with God and discerning Jesus’ invitation for us. For the upcoming months we delve deeper into the six habits of discipleship: Prayer, Scripture, Mass, Sacrament of Reconciliation, Service, and Community Life. During this month we will focus on the habit of Prayer. Opening Prayer Lord Jesus, we praise You for You are patient! You lovingly wait for us to come to You and long to listen to us. Forgive us for the times in our lives when we have not drawn close to You in prayer. In Your Scripture You tell us, “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6 - 7) We claim this promise. Thank You for being so available to us. Help us to know that You long to meet with us in prayer. Lord, teach us how to pray. Give us the desire to get to know You in prayer every day and the discipline to guard our prayer time when busyness tempts us away from You. Jesus, we trust in You. We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN Reflection: On Prayer As turning to Jesus in prayer becomes a habit in your life, you will not only grow in friendship with Him, you will also grow into deeper friendship with His people, both near and far. We grow into Jesus and each other at the same time. But the only way for any of this to start happening is for us to start praying. We need to start making prayer a habit if it isn’t already. Like the mustard seed, we need to start small so Jesus can help our prayer grow into something big. So, practice taking at least 10 minutes a day to have a conversation with the Lord. Speak to Him from your heart and listen to Him dwelling in your soul. Foster the habit of personal prayer to encounter Christ! This month, we explore how Jesus prayed to His Father. He had to find time amidst all the needs of others. He had to find a quiet place to go away. He had to carve out time for God in both His schedule and in His heart. Jesus faced some of the same challenges in prayer as we do today. Jesus invites you, here and now, to a life of deeper prayer and a life of deeper discipleship. If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, the door will be opened for you. How might you be open to a deeper call from Jesus through a habit of daily prayer? What might you discover about yourself, or about Jesus, in your conversation with Him? Discipleship Habit #1: Pray Every Day The first habit of discipleship that we want to explore is the call to “Pray Every Day”. This is the habit that finds the disciple in regular personal conversation with Jesus as a close friend. Recognizing that faith is first and foremost about a relationship with the person of Jesus, the habit of personal prayer is how we open up the lines of communication to build and grow that relationship. Simply put, daily prayer is the habit of spending time with our friend, Jesus. It’s that simple and that amazing! Just as we would with any good friend, in prayer, we take time to set distractions aside and be truly present with Him. We spend quality time, both telling Him about what’s happening in our lives and listening to Him. We tell Him the things that we love about Him and apologize when we hurt Him. Sometimes we’re just together in silence, appreciating each other. Because we are talking to a good friend, we need not worry about what to say or how to say it. In prayer, you can just speak from your heart. Go ahead and tell Him everything – your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your doubts, and your needs. The more you go to Jesus in prayer with everything in your life, the more Jesus will become everything for your life – and that’s the goal! As turning to Jesus in prayer becomes a habit in your life, you will not only grow in friendship with Him, you will also grow into deeper friendship with His people, both near and far. In fact, that’s the ultimate litmus test of true prayer: Are we also growing in love and forgiveness with our family members, friends, co-workers, mild acquaintances, and even our enemies? As Jesus teaches us in the Our Father, prayer is always the simultaneous movement of hallowing God’s name and longing that all people receive their daily bread. We grow into Jesus and each other at the same time. The danger in not having the proper interiority (intimacy with God) and the personal moral fidelity to back up our faith preaching is that we end up turning Christianity into a philosophy, an ideology, and a moral code, but ultimately missing what Christianity is all about, a relationship with a real person. (Holy Longing, pg. 63) Describe a time when you talked with a friend who really listened to you and understood you. How did you feel? What happened? Lord, Teach Me to Pray In the 11th Chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel, we find Jesus teaching His disciples to pray. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus did so much more than teach His disciples a simple prayer for them to recite. The Lord’s Prayer is, truly, the prayer of disciples. It provides us, not only with the ultimate prayer, but also a roadmap of how we are to live. How so? Read the passage below from Luke 11:1 – 4, 9 – 10. Here, we find the disciples come to Jesus and ask, “Lord, teach me to pray.” In other words, much like many of us, they weren’t sure how to pray either. Like many of us, they wondered if they had the right words. They knew that Jesus had a powerful connection to God, the Father – and they wanted that for themselves. They wanted to pray, they wanted to grow in relationship with God – but they weren’t sure where to start. And so, Jesus taught them how. The foundation of discipleship is prayer. Luke 11:1 – 4, 9 – 10 [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and after He had finished, one of his disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial. So, I say to you, ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” If God knows our needs, why do we need to ask? If we didn’t ask, would we still receive the same answers to our needs? The word Jesus uses for Father is closer to the meaning of Daddy. Does this change the feeling of the prayer for you? Why do you think Jesus told us to say Our Father instead of My Father? Do you think He did that intentionally? What does this mean for us? Hallowed be Your name: Why would we praise God’s name? Is there something special about God’s name? What other names is God called? Your kingdom come: What kind of a world do you long for? What would it be like if we prayed for and followed God’s will instead of our own? Give us each day our daily bread: What do you need to get through the day? Does God know what you need? Do you trust Him to give you what you need? And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us: Have you ever thought about these words as you prayed them? Would you want God to forgive you the same way/to the same degree that you forgive others? Why or why not? Who do you need to forgive? And do not bring us to the time of trial: What are the greatest sources of temptations for you? God doesn’t tempt us, but He allows us to be tempted. Why do you think He does that? What are some of the trials you are facing? What would it look like to be delivered from these trials? Closing Prayer Our Father – A Reflection Our Father Who Art In Heaven – O Creator, You made all things in love. All of creation is a blessing emanating from You. Hallowed Be Thy Name – Help us to let go, to clear the space inside of busy forgetfulness so that You can come and reside within us. Thy Kingdom Come – Let Your counsel rule our lives; unite our “I can” to Yours so that, together, we can bring forth a new world of peace. Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven – As we find Your love in ours, let Your heart’s fervent desire move us beyond ourselves to help bring about a new way of being. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread – Grant what we need each day in bread and insight; sustenance for the call of growing life. And Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us – Loose the cords of mistakes that bind us, as we release the strands we hold of other’s guilt. And Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil – Don’t let surface things distract us; free us from the things that hold us back from our true purpose. AMEN Jesus Calls Us to Follow Him
Week 10 Jesus is Calling You – Yes, YOU!! Opening Prayer Lord Jesus, we praise You. You are wise. In Your perfect plan, You invite us into Your life. You lovingly seek us in our daily lives and offer us the free gift of a relationship with You. Forgive us for the times we’ve failed to recognize and respond to Your call in our lives. In Your Scripture You tell us, “It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you.” (John 15:16) Thank you for choosing us and inviting us into the adventure of following You. Help us to know, not just with our head but with our whole being, that You seek each one of us and call us to follow You as Your faithful disciples. Lord, give us the desire and dedication to follow You with all our hearts. Jesus, we trust in You. We make this prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN Reflection John 15:12 - 16 This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend. You are My friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from My Father. It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. What kind of friend is Jesus? What does Jesus think about or feel about His friends? What seem to be the qualities of Jesus’ friends, His disciples? What challenges do you face that keep you from Jesus? As you pray about Jesus’ friendship with you, how do you think He’s calling you right now? Hopefully, each day you find it easier to find time to pray, and prayer becomes more familiar and more natural. There are still times, however, when prayer may seem dry. Virtually every pray-er throughout human history has experienced moments of dryness, days where it seemed difficult to pray or even find time to pray. Even some of the most revered saints in history experienced this! Remember that growing in relationship with Jesus, and deepening one’s prayer life takes TIME. Just as an athlete doesn’t run a 10K overnight, so too growing in prayer takes time and daily effort. You may not notice any growth from one day to the next, but by striving consistently, you will grow closer to Jesus – the greatest goal of all!! As you pray with how Jesus is calling you – yes, YOU – personally and deeply, continue to ask God for what you need the most right now to experience closeness to Him. Ask God for that which you need. And be sure to pray this week for those in our parish family that are also walking in this journey with you. What would a deeper prayer life look like to you? Gradually step into that this week. Closing Prayer The goods that we offer are gifts from You: Our lives with all their freedom, our distracted minds, our often-weak wills, and failing memories. These are our gifts to You. Hear our simple prayer: When we are weak, be our strength; when we doubt, be our faith; when we’re discouraged, be our hope; and when we’re lost, come and find us. When we’re hungry, be our food, when we’re thirsty, be our drink; when we’re in darkness, be our light, and when we’re sad, be our comfort and joy. Let us feel Your touch in all we say and do. Let us grow and blossom in Your love. Grant us this, Lord, and there’s nothing more we want until we see You face to face. Take all we have and all we are; give us Your love and Your grace, with these we are full, yes, we’re full. Mike Moynahan, SJ |
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