Posted on 08/25/2016 7:14:46 AM PDT by Salvation
The Lord says that we have to pray and indicates that without prayer we will give way to temptation. Thus prayer is essential for us to escape sin and keep our lives on the right path. While God offers many graces to overcome sin and live holy lives, those graces are often delivered through the doorway of prayer. Prayer is God’s way of knocking at the door of our heart; prayer is our way of answering. Prayer is God’s offer and prayer is our response. Jesus says,
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20).
The shared meal referred to here, beyond its reference to the Eucharist, is also a sign of intimacy. While our culture is casual about eating (and just about everything else), in those days sharing a meal was not done with just anyone. Meals were shared with close family and friends. That is one reason that people of Jesus’ time were often surprised to see the people with whom Jesus shared meals. St. Peter also shocked the people of his time when he entered the household of a Gentile (Cornelius) and ate with him (Acts 10 & 11).
So, Jesus knocking at the door of our heart, seeking entrance, and sharing a meal, is a sign of reverence and intimacy. And we surely also need the food He offers: His Word and His Word made flesh.
Yes, prayer is both beautiful and essential.
Yet many Christians find prayer difficult. To some degree, our difficulties today are greater than in previous eras due to the constant noise and abundant distractions of our time. So noisy and frantic are our lives that sitting still and being silent is downright unnerving for many.
This is all the more reason that we must pray and pray well!
Learning to pray is not just a “fake it till you make it” proposition. As with any other area of life, we need to be taught; we can benefit from the experience of those who have gone before us. While it is true that prayer must be more than a “technique,” it is also true that prayer is more than a vague and purely subjective experience. Thus teaching can help us to find what is best and to avoid pitfalls that can discourage us.
Of all the books on prayer I recommend, The Fulfillment of All Desire by Dr. Ralph Martin is at the very top of my list. Anyone for whom I have been a spiritual director will attest that my first request of him or her is to obtain a copy of Dr. Martin’s book and begin reading it.
The book is valuable not only due to Ralph’s own wonderful insights, but also because he organizes and summarizes the teachings of the great Doctors of prayer (from the Catholic and Western traditions) so well. He draws heavily from St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis De Sales, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. Thomas Aquinas.
He organizes the material along the fundamental stages of prayer: the purgative way, the illuminative way, and the unitive way. In the purgative stage we seek, by God’s grace, to identify our sins and attachments and to become increasingly free of them. We undergo basic conversion and begin to develop the habit of prayer. In the illuminative stage we see our love for and intimacy with God and neighbor increase, the virtues grow stronger within us, and our prayer become quieter and deeper. In the unitive stage, having made progress by grace, we receive a habitual, deep, and ever-deepening union with God, marked by joy, humility, and stability.
In his presentation of each stage, Dr. Martin samples richly from the writings of the saints and the teaching of the Church. He also gives much practical advice that helps to root the teaching within the setting of the modern world. He goes to the sources and brings them to us, applying their wisdom to our situation.
Simply put, the book is essential to anyone who seeks a guide to prayer.
And, dear readers, I hope you do seek a guide to prayer, for prayer is essential. Jesus said that temptation is looming, and if we don’t pray our lives can go off track pretty quickly without that remedy. But the Lord did not leave us alone to respond to so great a summons! He has sent us saints and biblical wisdom to teach us. And in our times, He anointed Dr. Ralph Martin to compile and present this wisdom to us freshly and comprehensively.
If you don’t have a copy of The Fulfillment of All Desire, go sell all that you have and buy one! 🙂
That's quite an unfounded assumption.
Why'd you change the subject and make it an attack on knarf?
Like everything else in our lives, God teaches us through the Bible everything we need to know about praying to Him.
Choose your passage. (”Bible dipping” is okay here. But also so is working your way through a section or book of your choice.)
(If you want, do your research and scholarly stuff.)
1) Read a verse or two. Read it over. Moving your lips is a good idea.
2) Think about it. Imagine, question, examine. If, for instance, it was an account of the Baptism of our Lord, you might imagine him picking his way down the banks of the river. Or you might consider that here he is “reckoned among the transgressors.” Whatever.
3) Pray a little prayer as it comes to mind: “Lord, do not let me stumble as I come to your grace.” “Thank you for coming to me in my sinful life.”
4) Relax and be still ... until your mind wanders. God is speaking. Be silent.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
...
Yes. It's a “technique.” But, well, Ps 119 is all about meditation on the word. This can be a way to do that.
...
“The Pilgrim's Progress” is a wonderful book. (Time for me to read it again!) Bunyan writes very well of the trials of the Christian life, of its high and low points. And the main character, “Christian,” has companions on his way.
Who would not want companions on the way? A book on prayer can widen one’s circle of companions. Sure Jesus is the way, and as Catherine of Siena says, “All the way to heaven is heaven,” because Jesus is the way. But it's still good to have someone like Catherine to remind us of this especially when the way looks like the way to Golgotha or, on the other hand, when it is full of distracting delights.
This book is very good.
“I don’t need a book describing, explaining or teaching me how to talk to my Dad .. !”
"So you don’t need Jesus either, right?"
Democrats do that ALL the time
Getting a Bible would certainly be part of a good start.
But many of us were taught our first prayers before we could read. And the customs of our own congregation are taught to us, and they are part of prayer. I have been struck, when I have worshipped with Baptists, at the uniform posture of the ... “ushers,” I suppose you’d call them, at prayer: down on one knee, elbow on the other knee, forehead supported the hand.
There is a lot of teaching of prayer which does not directly refer to Scripture.
Thanks for the excellent suggestions.
Another good book to meditate on is “The Imitation of Christ.”
Click on my name to find it broken down into short chapters.
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Yeshua taught us all we need to know about prayer in Matthew Ch 6.
Pray only to the Father, and do so in Yeshua’s name.
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>> “Why not start with the Bible?” <<
Because the Bible tells most people that read it things they would rather not know.
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Yes
IS .. ABBA ... daddy ?
“Why’d you change the subject and make it an attack on knarf?”
No attack was made. Why did you take a perfectly could rejoinder and say it was an attack?
If you don’t know what a rejoinder is, look it up.
“Like everything else in our lives, God teaches us through the Bible everything we need to know about praying to Him.”
It’s a wonder then that so many Protestants have published books on prayer if all that is needed is the Bible. I guess they know sola scriptura isn’t true.
“Dear GOD how did you make that connection ?”
Simple. You said: “I don’t need a book describing, explaining or teaching me how to talk to my Dad .. !”
And what is it - EXACTLY - that Jesus does in Luke 11?
The Bible wasn't even mentioned...Is anyone surprised???
Use your God given brain to parse your own language !
Protestants may ... but believers don’t.
"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 in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11:1-13)."
NEVER
We ALL need that
**Because the Bible tells most people that read it things they would rather not know.**
But is that prayer or a compilation of books?
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