What is Prayer? & Key One (pgs 1-28), Before we begin to explore various methods or ways to pray, let us first spend a few weeks on the primer of prayer that our book offers defining prayer and “unlocking” the four keys to effective prayer. I have been taught that my relationship with my Father is often the default mode of how I interact with God. This has always made sense to me; God wants the closeness of a relationship with me like that of Father/child. The next level to this is how my personal communication style (relating to others) directly informs how I pray. Page 5 can help grow my personal awareness to learn more about my own default mode. Key one: Developing a Positive Image of God & Self can be the work of a lifetime. Pope Benedict XVI wrote an entire encyclical titled God is Love. When we understand that and begin to understand our relationship as son or daughter, we can begin to allow God to love us as we are. The prayer exercise on page 28 is profound. If you have any insights from this prayer exercise and want to share them with me, send me an email at [email protected]   

 Key two, Our second key in praying well is to be honest with God. This is simple, but not easy! To be honest with God, we first must be honest with ourselves – especially regarding our feelings and emotions. God created us very good (Gen 1:31) but as many of us grow and mature, we often lose touch with our true feelings or learn ways to mask or repress them. Our entire journey into deep faith is about allowing the Lord to reveal to us our true self. He can handle all our emotions and wants us to be truthful and honest with Him in prayer! God already knows everything about us and yet somehow, we are tempted to hold back or hide a part of ourselves, our thoughts, or feelings. Let Jesus in! As JP2 so boldly declared in his first homily as Pope, Open wide the doors for Christ!   

Key three, The third key – Connecting Prayer with Daily Life –
....is one of the biggest challenges we face in trying to grow as a disciple. Fr. Tobin shares that the 13 Powerful Ways to Pray that we will learn about later in the book only make sense with a commitment to spend daily time with the Lord (he calls it Spousal Prayer). I have struggled in the past with wanting to use my will and imperfect human effort to commit to daily prayer. I have more success when I ask the Lord to give me a desire to fidelity to daily time with Him. Forming good rituals and habits helps too, because then I do not need willpower but to simply “show up” daily. The Lord can work with me if I make myself available.   

3/17, Key four, Our fourth key in prayer is Listening 
I think we make this more difficult than it needs to be. God is always striving to speak to us – the txt tells us the normal ways are through Scripture, our friends and family, the events of our life, and through creation. It is our job to grow our awareness and attention to the still, small voice or ways in which the Lord wants to speak to us. It would be awesome to have a St. Paul type encounter with the Lord where you get knocked to the ground and hear Him speak; but that is not the ordinary means in how God speaks. I am going to do the suggested prayer exercise on page 64 twice this week. Will you join me?  

3/24 One – Prayer of Thanksgiving 
Our chapter reminds us that a grateful person who consistently recognizes the blessings in life is usually healthier and happier than someone who does not recognize or acknowledge blessings. Personal health and happiness aside, gratitude and a thankful disposition are crucial to living in a manner that all we have and receive is a gift from God. Anecdotally, I was told on the Diocesan Women’s Retreats in February that quickly writing down (naming) 10 unique blessings in a day can be a fun challenge to try if you are needing to grow an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness.     

3/31 Easter ,  2+3 , Two & Three – Prayers of Petition and Intercession 
I love the simple distinction presented that prayers of petition are for oneself, and intercession are for the needs of others. Personally, and anecdotally, I find prayers of intercession to be “easier” and “safer”. We must fear being selfish to prayer for our own needs but if we want to grow and foster our personal relationship and connection with the Lord, then praying for a desire to know God or see His action in our life makes complete sense! Lastly, I am encouraged by the idea of interceding for someone else in a situation like my own (pg 98). This would elevate the entire Body of Christ and ultimately help me grow in compassion and love of my neighbor.  Happy Easter! After these chapters, I prayed the Solemn Intercessions on Good Friday in a new and profound way this way. I hope you did too!   

4/7 , 4+5 , Four & Five – Prayers of Contrition and Forgiveness 
Our chapters this week are an encouragement to look at ourselves and allow God to help us change/grow into the person He calls us to be. Both contrition – which is a true sorrow for our sins and acknowledgement of the harm sin does to our relationships – and forgiveness of those who have harmed us often begin with asking God for the desire to be contrite and to forgive. This is active work and usually a long process. God will give us the grace we need to work through it, and he can transform our hearts; ask for His help! If you need another book with encouragement regarding forgiveness, find a copy of Dynamic Catholic’s Everybody Needs to Forgive Somebody.  

4/14 , 6 , Six – Prayer of Consciousness Examen 
If one of our main goals of growing in relationship with God is being more in tune with the Holy Spirit, then living in a more reflective manner is an ideal commitment! I love this short chapter in its encouragement to allow the Holy Spirit to lead our time of prayer. God wants us to communicate with Him – and He is going to continue to lead us and gift us all we need for our personal relationship with Godself if we but follow His lead. I have a few keywords for personal growth written on the whiteboard in my office, and docile is top of the list.  

4/21 , 7,8 , Seven & Eight – Spiritual Journaling and Decisioning Prayer 
As someone who has never given journaling a fair shake, chapter seven’s suggestions for spiritual journaling are brilliant. This exercise is aimed at increasing my capacity and honesty for personal reflection so that I may allow God to reveal the “gap” between my false self and the person God has created me to be. In chapter eight, the key takeaway is to recognize, like in all things, God asks for my active participation in the ordinary ways that He acts. The temptation is to think that decision-making is just asking God a this or that question, but I can use my God-given intellect and reason to see if the decision aligns with God’s will.  

4/28, 9, Nine – Spiritual Reading 
Everyone striving to grow in their relationship with the Lord knows that spiritual reading is a good practice, but it is difficult to do. Fr. Tobin points out how most of any reading we tend to do is informative while spiritual reading is formative. This means we cannot approach spiritual reading in the same manner. My biggest struggle in spiritual reading comes from this point. I am tempted to always want to achieve or complete a certain volume of text or chapters. When I set that aside and let God work, I can allow myself to be formed by Him and His Word.  

5/5, 10, Ten – Contemplative Prayer 
The theme for this style of prayer is to not be overly focused on what we are doing or achieving but rather allow ourselves to be in a space in which we notice we are loved by God. These two nuggets of wisdom from the text will be on my mind in these next few days: A distractionless prayer period is obviously more satisfying but not necessarily more pleasing to God. What God looks for in prayer is a heart that longs for him, seeks him, and cries out for union with him (158). We should concern ourselves with having a heart that seeks union with its Maker (162).  

5/12 , 11,12, Eleven & Twelve – Adoration and the Rosary 
Eucharistic Adoration and praying the Rosary often seem like advanced methods of prayer for a novice or someone growing in faith. These chapters remind us that our small efforts and showing up to prayer allow us to continue to be formed by God. It is not about the number of rote prayers we say or have memorized but is all resting in our personal relationship with the Lord. Should we be distracted or lose focus in our prayer time, God loves us when we return our focus and gaze back on Him.  

5/19, 13, Thirteen – in Times of Spiritual Dryness + Conclusion Spiritual Dryness will happen at various points in our spiritual journey, and Fr. Tobin offers excellent points on possible causes and encouragement for how to handle these periods. The biggest takeaway for me is how we understand and know how this works in human relationships but often forget or want to treat our relationship with the Lord as something different. One reason Jesus Christ was a human person so that we could intimately know God. The biggest difference in our relationship with the Lord is that we do well when we allow God to form ourselves. We do not need to “do much” aside from having an open disposition. I am looking forward to sitting with the thoughts on page 198. As we conclude, I want to highlight that we talk about our faith as a journey. In a journey, there is growth and movement. Perhaps several of these 13 Powerful Ways to Pray will help you along your way. Peace & Blessings as we journey together into deep union and intimacy with our Triune God!