Resources Prayer
Resources for Prayer

The Journey of Prayer

 At it's heart, prayer is a relationship between you and God. We often think of prayer in terms of asking God or thanking him for something, but to limit prayer to those two things is to miss out on so much more that God wants to give us. Prayer involves asking God, thanking God, being with God, listening to God, and simply enjoying his presence. Like any relationship, our relationship with God can grow through time. God is always willing to spend time with us and connect with us, so long as we are willing to persevere in seeking him. But how exactly do we pray?

Types of Prayer

In the Catholic Tradition, we are blessed to have so many methods of prayer. There are long traditions of vocal prayers, such as the rosary or divine mercy chaplet, and liturgical prayers, such as the mass or the liturgy of the hours. These prayers can be done with a group or on our own. There is also a long history of meditation and contemplative prayer, which involves focusing with our minds and hearts on God, his word, or another part of our faith.

Whatever method of prayer we choose, the most important thing is that we pray. Certain types of prayer may resonate with us more at different stages of our spiritual journey, but the most important thing is that we make space for God and seek him through prayer.

Most fundamentally, prayer is relational. While there is immense value in devotional prayers, such as the rosary, liturgical prayers, and other set methods of prayer, it is also crucial for us to have daily unscripted time with God. If this sounds scary, that's okay. God meets us exactly where we are at. He is always there, wanting to take the next step with us. The beauty of prayer is that we don't need to be perfect or have it all figured out to show up (otherwise none of us would pray); rather, it is in prayer that the real me meets the real God, and he does his work of healing and transformation in me. 

Setting the Stage for Prayer

Here are a few key steps we can take to start taking unscripted time with God.

1. Find a time: Start by deciding when you'll pray. Mornings tend to be the best for most people, but pick whatever works with your schedule and stick to it. As you begin to pray, aim for 15-20 minutes, and try to work up to 30-60 minutes as your season of life allows. It can also be helpful to set an alarm so that you aren't distracted looking at the clock during your prayer time.

2. Find a place: Where will you pray? This can be as important as when. Finding a place that is (relatively) quiet with little or no distractions is ideal. If it's hard to find a quiet place indoors, going outside can be a great alternative. It can also be helpful, especially in a less quiet home, to put in earbuds with gentle background noise or some soft music conducive to prayer.

3. Find a resource: While we don't want to script this time, it can be of great value to have a resource, such as a small section of the Bible, a spiritual book, a worship song, or even a piece of art to start with. The idea is not to accomplish a task of reading, or getting through the song, but to spark connection with God. Further down the page are some recommendations for resources that could work for this.

Once you have these three things, you're ready to start praying!

Taking the Plunge

Once we've prepared our time, space, and materials, we are ready to dive into prayer.

The goal of this time is to connect with God. The steps below are suggestions but not meant to be rigid. We may linger at a certain step or only make it through the first few. So long as we are connecting with God (or trying to), that's all that matters.

A. Be real with yourself: Before we begin to pray, it can be helpful to pause, take a deep breathe, and examine ourselves. Where are we at? Are we tired, hungry, anxious, excited, restless, distracted, etc.? We don't want to get stuck here on introspection, but a healthy self-awareness will allow us to pray more fruitfully.

B. Be real with God: As we begin to pray, we start by acknowledging who God is. God is the Almighty, the all-powerful; he created everything and needs nothing. Everything we are is complete gift. He is worthy of all our praise and all our thanks. But God is also our Father, our friend. He has always loved us, and his love doesn't change. He is tender, merciful, and excited to see us (even if we aren't feeling very excited about prayer). He longs to spend this time with us because he knows how much we need it. As we approach God we may want to:

i) Worship: Praise God for who he is, because he alone is worthy.

ii) Thank: Give thanks for all that he has done for us and given to us. 

iii) Repent: Acknowledge our need for God's mercy and bring to him anything that could be a barrier in our relationship with him.

iv) Surrender: Entrust ourselves, with all our cares and concerns, to our loving Father. He already knows what's going on, so we don't have to pretend to be anything we're not. If we're not feeling joyful or excited to be praying, we can surrender that to God. What's important is that we make the decision to be with God and give ourselves to him.

v) Invite: Ask God to send his Spirit to move in our hearts, and to teach us to pray. We want to tell God that our desire is to be with him, hear his voice, and draw close to him.

vi) Imagine: It can be helpful for us to imagine Jesus in our minds as right before us. We are speaking to a Person; we want to be attentive to him.

C. Begin the conversation: Now that we've approached God as we are, we can dive into our resource as a springboard for connection and conversation. Most commonly, Christians have used a passage from the Bible to aid them in prayer (traditionally known as Lectio Divinina), but it is not the only way. We may also use other spiritual reading, Christian art or worship music to pray. Whatever we have chosen, we begin by prayerfully considering our resource. As we read, view, or listen, we are attentive to a word, a line, a portion of the image, that is drawing us. We may need to go through our resource a few times before something stands out. We may also choose to write this down in a journal.

D. Consider: Once something has stood out to us, we stop and reflect on this. What is striking us? What does it mean? What is being revealed about God, about ourselves, or about our relationship with others in this medium? We may write down any thoughts that are coming to mind.

E. Converse: Now that we've pondered this, we want to bring this to God. We invite God to speak to us in this, trusting that he was the one who highlighted it for us. We listen in our hearts for a word, an image, a sense of what may God may be revealing to us in this medium. As we receive, we can respond to God and dialogue with him from our hearts. We may find ourselves opening up and sharing what we were not aware of initially but what God has brought to the surface of our hearts.

F. Rest: We thank God for anything we have received and rest in his presence. We can always rest in God's love. 

G. Conclude: We may end by bringing any needs we have to God. We can ask for his blessing for the rest of our day, and if there is anything we ought to do (or not do). God wants to guide us and walk with us even after our prayer time is over. Most importantly, we want to thank God for being with us, whether we felt our time of prayer was what we hoped it might be.

Don't be Discouraged!

Prayer is journey. Don't be discouraged if it feels awkward or difficult at first. The most important thing is that we keep going; if we keep showing up, so will God, and we will see growth.

Here are a few ideas on resources that can help as you continue your journey:

  • Daily mass readings: The daily readings can be a great resource to pray with. You can find them in a printed version at the parish, or online at https://beholdvancouver.org/services/daily-mass-readings
  • The Gospels: Many people have been blessed by choosing one of the four gospels and slowly working their way through it. If you need a Bible, let us know. You can also find many online versions or even apps for your smartphone. Remember, the goal isn't too read everything but to prompt connection and conversation with God.
  • Sacred Art: There are many wonderful art pieces that have been made to draw us to God. As a starting point, you may wish to consider the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt with the accompanying story from Luke chapter 15.
  • Worship Music: There are numerous genres of Christian music. It can be helpful to explore various genres and styles to see what resonates with you. Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube have large selections of sacred music, contemporary Christian music, hymns, gospel songs, and other styles that can lead you to God. As a parish, we have drawn heavily from Matt Maher, Hillsong, and Bethel music (to name a few) alongside traditional hymns in our worship.

 

 

Resources to Grow in Prayer

 

There are many resources out there that can also teach you how to pray. Here are a few suggestions: