Tips on Prayer

During the following weeks we are going to post one 'tip on prayer' every week. The tips are written by partners, participants and friends of Catholics on Call and can help us to get an always deeper understanding of what it means to be prayerful people. Just try it!

I'm not able to pray
A disciple comes to his master and complains: “Master, I tried so hard to concentrate, I have reflected about myself and calmed down all my thoughts – but still I couldn’t pray. What shall I do?” The master replies: “Make your not-being-able-to-pray a prayer.”
Bishop Klaus Hemmerle
(Hemmerle, Klaus: Dein Herz an Gottes Ohr: Einuebungen ins Gebet. Muenchen, Zuerich, Wien: Verlag Neue Stadt, 1999)

Rummaging for God
Some years ago, Fr. Dennis Hamm, SJ wrote an article “Rummaging for God: Praying Backward Through Your Day.” I find it helpful and maybe you will also.
1. Pray for Light. We are praying for graced understanding of how the Spirit of God has been leading us during the day. As Fr. Hamm says, “Lord, help me understand this blooming, buzzing confusion.”
2. Review the day in thanksgiving. Look back over the things I’ve done, people I’ve met and places I’ve been. Thank the Lord for every gift you encounter.
3. Review the feelings that surface in the replay of the day. Simply pay attention to any and all of those feelings as they surface. Feelings give us clear signals about what is going on in our lives.
4. Choose one of those feelings (positive or negative) and pray from it. This feeling is a sign that something important is going on here. Simply express the prayer that spontaneously arises in your heart.
5. Look toward tomorrow. Review what is on your agenda for the coming day. What feelings surface? Turn these feelings into a prayer.

Susan Kienzler, OSU
 

Charging the cell phone

“We are like cell phones that need to sit regularly in a charger in order to function properly, to do what we’re supposed to do. Prayer is our charger. We must just sit and let God ‘charge’ us on a regular basis. Otherwise, just like cell phones, we end up losing power just when we need it. We’ve all been THERE – and it stinks!”

Corey Brost, CSV

Listening in Prayer

If prayer is communication with God, it involves listening, as well as speaking, to God. The listening dimension of prayer is not simple or easy. There is no single, foolproof method for discerning God’s word to us, though spiritual masters like Ignatius of Loyola have offered rules and principles of discernment. As we try to become quiet in prayer we usually encounter a host of stirrings and voices at different levels of our being. Some of this inner noise represents the more superficial thoughts and concerns that are part of daily life. Listening for God means moving beyond these surface stirrings to the very center of our being. There we are able to get into touch with our deepest desires. It is there that God’s desires for us and our own deepest desires intersect. At that still, center point we begin to be able to discern the voice of God.

(Robin Ryan, CP, Catholics on Call)

Waiting for God's Response

We are so steeped in a culture of immediacy. Like fast cash from the ATM, we want things now. We expect to see a response to an email or text message within minutes. It is easy to grow impatient. Prayer often requires that we sit in the awkwardness and uncertainty of not knowing. It may take a long time. Prayer requires that we pay attention and live in God’s presence. It is as much about seeking as it is about finding. Prayer is an invitation to openness, and it requires a healthy sense of detachment from the outcome.

Beth Knobbe

Contemplative Prayer

"I'm a gregarious person. The thought of five days of silence was a bit daunting, but I made the decision to stretch my understanding of prayer. I spent five days at the Camadolese Monastery in Big Sur, California and it changed my prayer life. On a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I discovered the joy of silence. Called to prayer several times a day with the monks, I became immersed in the chanted psalms and the quiet meditation following. It was a conversion experience for me, a time of closeness to God that I treasure. When I returned, I started a contemplative prayer group at my parish which continues to feed my spiritual life. What a blessing!"

Pam Coster (CoC Advisory Board Member)

Thirst by Mary Oliver

Thirst by Mary Oliver

Another morning and I wake with thirst
for the goodness I do not have. I walk
out to the pond and all the way God has
given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord,
I was never a quick scholar but sulked
and hunched over my books past the
hour and the bell; grant me, in your
mercy, a little more time. Love for the
earth and love for you are having such a
long conversation in my heart. Who
knows what will finally happen or
where I will be sent, yet already I have
given a great many things away, expect-
ing to be told to pack nothing, except the
prayers which, with this thirst, I am
slowly learning.
--
I found this poem on retreat a year ago, or should I say it found me. It is the Epilogue in Mary Oliver's book Thirst. The line that leapt off the page was "love for the earth and love for you (God) are having such a long conversation in my heart," and I spent hours pondering, praying with, and even painting the "long conversation" in my heart. As I write about it today it is still loaded with meaning a year later.

I find the God quest is full of such heart conversations. If you can find a moment or two today, take some time to ponder the "long conversation" going on in your heart. Can you hear it? What is it saying to you? Where is it calling you? As we listen/contemplate/ponder these "long conversations," may we be inspired to become God's healing presence of love in our wounded world.

Lisa Buscher, RSCJ

The Step over the Threshold

Today I would like to introduce you to a German author. Bishop Klaus Hemmerle from Aachen is a well-known theologian and philiospher. The following story has been published in his book about prayer - one of my favorites! Hope you like it.
Birgit Oberhofer

“Master”, the disciples ask, “you have told us: Praying is a way. Which step on this way is the most important?” “The step over the threshold,” the master replies. They ask back: “What kind of step is it and how does it work?” The master says: “Sometimes we stumble into our prayer. We find ourselves in the middle of prayer when we didn’t even start it. Or we realize afterwards: I wanted to pray but the words went through me like water through a pipe. When you start your prayer, you have to make a step over your tiredness, distraction, tension and say to Him: Here I am!
But that’s still not it. The step over the doorstep is not only your step, it is God’s step. When we pray, God comes over the threshold. Look for him, seek him; expect him. Then He will tell you: “Here I am!”” The disciples reflect on what he said and the master looks at them: “If in our prayer nothing else but this step happens, then it is fine. To start praying already means praying well. But never stop praying before you have started.”
Bishop Klaus Hemmerle
(Hemmerle, Klaus: Dein Herz an Gottes Ohr: Einuebungen ins Gebet. Muenchen, Zuerich, Wien: Verlag Neue Stadt, 1999)

Prayer as conversation with God

My favorite book on prayer is Paths to Prayer by Bishop Robert Morneau. Bishop Morneau describes prayer as that basic communication between God and God’s people that sustains and deepens a loving relationship. Prayer is a life long conversation with the one who created us and loves us. Prayer is that intimate exchange between lover and beloved, the one we talk with like a best friend. God is the one to whom we direct our hopes and dreams and concerns for the world. And prayer is the path through which God conveys God’s mercy and love for us. Prayer is a conversation that requires us to listen carefully, speak truthfully, and wait patiently for the other to respond.

Beth Knobbe

Monday, NovemPrayer in the mess

A good starting place for my prayer comes from one of my favorite quotes:
“The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives… Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness.” (Messy Spirituality by Michael Yaconelli)
My best prayer is prayer from my heart in the midst of the mess of my life.

Sr. Marybeth Maring, PHJC

Show up!

• Our job is to show up. We do this by setting a specific time and place for our prayer and bringing an open heart. God is the One who prays within us.
• Prayer is an encounter between the real me with the real God. I might not be in the inner place where I think I “should be”, “want to be” or “ought to be.” Because this is where I am, this is the only place where God can find me.
• As a friend of mine says: “Let your God love you.”

Susan Kienzler, OSU

Getting Started

If you are not used to a regular rhythm of prayer in your life, getting started can be a challenge. Three suggestions may be helpful.
First, follow the “Nike” slogan: “Just do it.” In other words, a person can read many books about prayer and listen to countless lectures, but at some point we just need to bring ourselves before the Lord on a daily basis.
Second, start small. Don’t begin with a commitment to an hour (or even a half hour) of prayer each day. Begin with ten minutes of focused time. If you make this a habit you can build on it and add to the time.
Third, find a place that is conducive to prayer. That place may be your own room, driving in your car alone, sitting under a tree or beside a lake, or in a church. But it is important for us to locate a place that is quiet and peaceful -- removed from the rush of ordinary life -- which can become a “sacred space” for us. 

Robin Ryan, CP