These words are so true and important that they should be engraved in your mind and in your heart so that you don’t forget them: because the decline of one’s supernatural life begins when you start neglecting prayer. You were made for prayer, and the language of the soul is prayer. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). It is the best way to express your love for God, to console and be consoled by Him. When you completely abandoned prayer, you have simply returned to “the world” for your comfort and repose. Do you exchange what is temporal for what is eternal? But do we have time to “be still” and be in the presence of God, to talk to Him and to listen to Him, and to make our needs known to Him? As a flower needs water and sunshine, we need prayer. And so it is incalculably harmful to us when we consciously or unconsciously make the decision not to pray, and thus put up a barrier between ourselves and our true happiness: a personal relationship with God our Eternal Father. Oh Holy Spirit, give me a renewed and zealous attention to prayer; give me the grace to see the incalculable power of prayer; help me to see with Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri that those who pray shall be saved. Therefore, we ought to be committed to prayer. It is akin to spiritual suicide not to pray. Prayer should be the very foundation of our lives to grow closer and ever closer to God. How do we fulfill this Commandment: “Thou shalt love thy Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" if we do not pray.. If we are in need of a certain virtue, for example, patience, or chastity, or the grace to pray better, we must relentlessly ask God for this grace in prayer. “Ask and it will be given to you”(Matt. 7:7). Why is prayer so important, other than it being the very basis of your loving relationship with God? Here are two reasons: 1. Prayer directs our attention away from the passing things of this world (that so distract us) and toward God: in Whom all our happiness consists. Prayer, then, is a profound remedy against worldliness, since it augments our union with God. 2. In God’s Providential direction of the universe He has ordained that we should pray to Him, and He continually gives us actual graces to pray when we would rather not. “And what is the primary source of grace that we always have at our disposal? It is prayer. Why? Because it is part of the divine plan, which is what providence means, is that we should obtain many of the things we need only by asking God to grant them.” Therefore it is either we pray or we do not get the divine light and strength we need.” Fr. J Hardon. " If you pray you are sure of saving your soul. If you do not pray you are just as sure to lose your soul." St. Alphonsus Liguori Prayer can be formal or informal, verbal or nonverbal, active or contemplative. Prayer is communicating with God. Just as we talk and share with our best friends what is happening in our lives, so we talk and share with God. Just as we listen to our friends, so we listen to God. As in human communication, our communication with God can be expressed in a variety of ways. We communicate with God using words and songs, in imagination and silence, and ritually or spontaneously. We can pray in church, our gardens, our cars, or while in the shower. We can also pray lying in bed, as the first thing we do when we awake, and as the last thing we do as we drift off to sleep. One of the characteristics of prayer we as Catholics believe is that with the right intention every moment of the day—all our hopes, works, joys, and sufferings—can become our prayer. Catholics pray in different ways, namely in three major expressions of prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. The images included in this article are two prayers that I do not neglect to say and encourage you to do also. NINE WAYS OF PRAYER OF ST. DOMINIC |
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AuthorAn artist, entrepreneur, a loving family man, 30 years a Catholic traditionalist upholding traditions for the love of God. Shop for Catholic giftsArchives
January 2024
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