Posted on 09/13/2008 11:24:37 AM PDT by Salvation
I've used these excuses myself too many times in my life. And they still creep back in when I'm not looking! Some common myths are:
Please know that the truth about prayer is Good News!
Truth: A prayer life is essential to the Christian life.
Prayer the lifeblood of your faith. Without prayer, your faith will die. (Catechism, 2744)
Truth: Prayer is compatible with everyday life.
And you'll also make prayer a part of the fabric of everyday life. You can find God in all the normal tasks of daily life. Seek him there!
— St. John Chrysostom
Truth: Even the smallest faith will blossom through prayer.
St. Paul tells us, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words." (Rom 8:26)
And the Catechism says: "The Holy Spirit, the artisan of God's works, is the master of prayer." (#741)
With a Master like that, how can you go wrong?
Truth: Learning how to pray is simple.
Throughout the ages, all kinds of people have learned how to pray.
Why not you, too?
— St. Therese of Lisieux
If you recognize your own thinking in any of those myths about prayer, examine the problem directly. You owe it to yourself to come to terms with it!
I've found Amy Welborn's book Prove It! Prayer to be a great help in addressing these questions. It's a great help for learning how to pray and developing a solid, mature prayer life. Don't be put off by the fact that the book is marketed for teens & young adults: the writing is breezy and casual, but the material is outstanding. It's very approachable. Easily one of the best guides to beginning a prayer life that I've seen.
If you're serious about developing a prayer life, you have to make a fundamental commitment to convert to Christ.
That means you have:
Prayer relies on this foundation. So what if you're not quite there yet?
Welcome to the club!
None of us is fully "there yet." Conversion is an ongoing challenge. It doesn't end when you're baptized or confirmed. You'll have to return to it frequently & renew your commitment.
But you do need a basic commitment to love & follow the Lord. Faith comes from God, not from our own work. But we have to consciously receive and nurture his gift of faith. A good step is learning how to pray.
It's always good to return to the basics of conversion. Review them, make sure that you understand them. I find it's helpful to pretend I'm just starting out again, and take it step by step. The article about the RCIA inquiry stage talks a lot about building a strong foundation of love for Christ.
Everything in the spiritual life rests on this foundation.
Turn to God as you learn how to pray.
With even the smallest initial faith, you'll find it easy to turn to God and ask him for help. A wonderful prayer here is to use the words of the sick child's father in the Gospel of Mark:
Now you say it! Go ahead; I'll wait. And really mean it — let it come from your heart.
Wasn't that easy?
Hey! You're praying!
Those are basically the three points we listed in the previous section!
In fact, this short prayer is an outstanding model of some basic attitudes we need for effective prayer.
Which leads us to...
This is important: Prayer depends on this attitude of neediness before God, expressed beautifully in the prayer from Scripture, above.
This attitude is one of humility and basic faith. It looks with confidence to God as the only source that can fulfill our needs and desires.
We call this having good dispositions.
The keys to learning how to pray:
Without good dispositions, we won't really be praying.
Without perseverance, we won't keep praying.
Compare the attitudes of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Jesus's parable from Luke's Gospel (Luke 18:9-14). The Pharisee is one of those who "trusted in themselves... and despised others." He lacks good dispositions; you could even say he lacks basic conversion.
The Pharisee really talks to himself rather than God. He loves himself, but not God or neighbor. His prayer is not true prayer — hence, Jesus says he is not "justified."
The Pharisee's prayer is the opposite of a prayer of humility and faith.
In contrast, the tax collector's prayer is rooted in the humility of knowing he's done wrong, and in faith he looks to God's mercy: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!"
Our dispositions in prayer are what will make us grow or stagnate in the interior life.
In addition, perseverance is necessary for learning how to pray. It shows our commitment to loving God even if we don't feel any particular benefit.
Especially when learning how to pray, most people face "temptations which cast doubt on the usefulness or even the possibility of prayer" (Catechism, 2753). The remedy is perseverance and trust in God.
Develop these two basic attitudes. Make them your own. Keep them before you constantly as you begin to pray.
Return to these basic attitudes frequently as you learn how to pray. Work to strengthen them.
Build a strong foundation and prayer will become much easier.
The next step in learning how to pray is to develop two simple habits of prayer.
This will work some quick prayers into the fabric of your normal day. You'll also have a basic structure of prayer to build on.
Most of all, it makes prayer a natural part of daily life. That's very important as you learn how to pray: if it's something foreign to your normal day, you'll be tempted to drop it as soon as you're pressed for time.
This is very easy.
The article daily Catholic prayer gives you a lot of suggestions for how to add a few quick prayers into your day. It only takes a few seconds here or a minute there, and suddenly your whole day is framed by prayer.
Another article helps make living in the presence of God a habit. This is also an essential part of the spiritual life.
You may be tempted to skip those habits mentioned above.
Do not skip them!
A very common mistake in learning how to pray is to take on too much and then grow discouraged. I've seen people try to start with hour-long prayer sessions, prayer journals, and long prayer workshops — only to give up in frustration.
The best approach is to do the opposite: Start very simply. Only take on a little. Build slowly.
In fact, these habit gets you started so easily that you'll only notice the joy of suddenly having prayer in your day! And you won't have to struggle to find the time.
So read those two articles now about daily Catholic prayer and the presence of God. Pick just a few things to start with, and do them. They're the first steps as you learn how to pray.
You'll form a wonderful habit of prayer that runs throughout your day. Everything else will be framed by your deep love for God, and your desire for union with him.
Now you'll find it easy to spend a few minutes in silence with the Lord...
Daily mental prayer is necessary for the Christian.
Your good habits of brief prayer throughout the day will make this not only easy, but an absolute pleasure!
Mental prayer, or Christian meditation, will be the focus of your growth in how to pray.
This detailed "how to" section on mental prayer grew so large that I had to make it into a separate article!
Read it to learn about how to start praying in the rich Catholic tradition of Christian meditation — and how to keep going.
There's actually an easy way to learn how to pray: the Rosary!
Non-Catholics often just do not understand the Rosary. (Believe me, I've been there myself!)
Yes, the Holy Rosary is indeed a loving devotion to Mary. But it's really much more than that: the Rosary is a beautiful school of prayer. It's a great way to learn how to pray.
The whole point of the Rosary is to lead you through some of the central Mysteries of Christ's life. As you go through each Mystery, you spend some time meditating on it.
See the article about how to pray the Rosary for all the details!
Prayer is your lifeline to a new life in Christ.
Use it!
Learn how to pray. Give yourself the gift of knowing how to talk with God.
Prayer "is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man." (Catechism, 2564)
Did you catch that?
You and God both act together in prayer!
The Lord awaits. "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Rev 22:20)
(Rev 22:17)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains a beautiful set of reflections on the Our Father. They are another good guide for how to pray (opens a new browser window). (Be sure to follow the "next" buttons in that window to read through all of the pages!)
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Bookmarked for future study. May we all find comfort in our prayer time.
Thanks for the post. I have bookmarked for future reference and study
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