Ways To Increase Your Prayer Life?

[Hinter dem Horizont]

Set a time to do your prayers. Every day I pray around the same time. Once you keep this schedule, your prayer life increases automatically due to vigilance. As well, find a good spiritual director that can be a good example for you. With my spiritual director, I meet him every week and we talk and pray together. Both of these help tremendously, in my opinion.

[In The Arms of The Lord]

Reverend Mother told me this concerning prayer, and she said so beautifully, "A sign of a true vocation to Carmel is to have an attraction to prayer in all its forms: silent prayer, liturgical, vocal... Our Lord wants us to feel at home when at prayer. It is as vital to our spiritual life as the air we breathe is to our physical life."

What everyone already said, and it might have been mentioned before but maybe I missed it, daily Mass if your able. I used to go only on Sunday, but it's been a great blessing to be walking distance to the Parish where i'm living right now. I can't begin to describe what a growing amount of grace is received when you receive Our Lord so often. We have to pray for perseverance in our prayer life; especially at times when we don't "feel" like it and so we go off to so many distractions. Prayer is so needed to stay close to Him and become closer to Him; and I could really go on talking about how much prayer is needed in every aspect of our lifes, at every moment! The Rosary is a must. You will notice such a difference in your spiritual life when you pray the Rosary; it gives much strength against spiritual attacks. I find that words and thoughts are not needed so much, at anytime and wherever you are, even just a simple lifting of your heart to Our Lord and offering everything to Him each moment is a great prayer. I find at times there seems to be so much I would like to say, but I can't find no words or thoughts that my heart is searching for, but even at the thought of His name and being aware of His presence in your life seems most of the time, for me anyway, more than any other words or thoughts I could say or think of.

It's a good preparation before entering a monastery to spend time in silence; perhaps before you go listen to some music, or turn on the television and internet; decide rather to just spend time in His presence, if not with Him in The Blessed Sacrament, just some quiet place in the house. This will help your relationship with Him become closer also. Sometimes a lot of distractions may arise in your thoughts, but as others have mentioned, it will be good to have a spiritual book with you also.

Edited November 11, 2010 by In The Arms of The Lord

[holly.o]

[quote name='carmelite15' timestamp='1289374188' post='2186151']
Thank you so so so much! can I ask how can I do mental prayer?
[/quote]

Everyone has written great advice so far, & I really can't think of anything to add. In regards to mental prayer, one book that has helped me quite a lot with understanding and practicing mental prayer is [i]Divine Intimacy[/i] by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. He was a Carmelite and offers a short, but very good description of mental prayer in the beginning of the book. The rest is meditations and quotes/prayers by Saints to help you pray. It's arranged for the Traditional liturgical calendar, so if you don't normally go to a Latin Mass, it might seem a bit confusing. But praying along with any of the days will help you, I think!

Remember what St. Paul said... pray without ceasing! This is done by having a prayerful, recollected attitude throughout the day in addition to more formal times set aside for silence and other types of prayer. As others have said, frequently lift your heart up to God throughout the day. You can also make spiritual communions - this is a well-known prayer for that: [url="http://www.sacredheart.com/CatholicPrayerSpiritualCommunion.htm"]Spiritual Communion[/url].

God bless!

[Klaudi87]

[quote name='holly.o' timestamp='1289514935' post='2186555']
Everyone has written great advice so far, & I really can't think of anything to add. In regards to mental prayer, one book that has helped me quite a lot with understanding and practicing mental prayer is [i]Divine Intimacy[/i] by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. He was a Carmelite and offers a short, but very good description of mental prayer in the beginning of the book. The rest is meditations and quotes/prayers by Saints to help you pray. It's arranged for the Traditional liturgical calendar, so if you don't normally go to a Latin Mass, it might seem a bit confusing. But praying along with any of the days will help you, I think!

Remember what St. Paul said... pray without ceasing! This is done by having a prayerful, recollected attitude throughout the day in addition to more formal times set aside for silence and other types of prayer. As others have said, frequently lift your heart up to God throughout the day. You can also make spiritual communions - this is a well-known prayer for that: [url="http://www.sacredheart.com/CatholicPrayerSpiritualCommunion.htm"]Spiritual Communion[/url].

God bless!
[/quote]

That is an excellent book!

[Chiquitunga]

[quote name='In The Arms of The Lord' timestamp='1289494856' post='2186472']
The Rosary is a must. You will notice such a difference in your spiritual life when you pray the Rosary; it gives much strength against spiritual attacks.[/quote]

Yes! [url="http://www.rosary-center.org/secret.htm"][i]The Secret of the Rosary[/i][/url], by St. Louis de Montfort .. also making the Consecration to Jesus through Mary, according to his method, will greatly increase your prayer life .. Ven. Maria Teresa Quevedo did this and had a great devotion to this form of consecration to Our Lady .. everything about it is outlined in the book [url="http://www.amazon.com/True-Devotion-Mary-Louis-Monfort/dp/0895552795"][i]True Devotion to Mary[/i][/url]

[quote]
It's a good preparation before entering a monastery to spend time in silence; perhaps before you go listen to some music, or turn on the television and internet; decide rather to just spend time in His presence, if not with Him in The Blessed Sacrament, just some quiet place in the house. This will help your relationship with Him become closer also. Sometimes a lot of distractions may arise in your thoughts, but as others have mentioned, it will be good to have a spiritual book with you also.[/quote]

Yes! And taking "PM breaks" sometimes to concentrate on prayer, as great VS can be and meeting/talking with all of you beautiful people

[Chiquitunga]

Also .. try to really meditate frequently on the Lord's Passion, as hard as it may be at times ..


[img]http://i56.tinypic.com/34oo7y0.png[/img]


A few quotes from Our Lord from St. Faustina's Diary ..

[quote]
[i]"There are few souls who contemplate My Passion with true feeling; I give great graces to souls who meditate devoutly on My Passion." (737)

"There is more merit to one hour of meditation on My Sorrowful Passion than there is in a whole year of flagellation that draws blood. The contemplation on My painful wounds is of great profit to you, and it brings Me great joy." (369)[b] [/b]

"I desire that you know more profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls, and you will understand this when you meditate upon My Passion." (186)[/i][/quote]

[holly.o]

[quote name='Chiquitunga' timestamp='1289616918' post='2186814']
Also .. try to really meditate frequently on the Lord's Passion, as hard as it may be at times ..
[/quote]



Along that line, try to make the Stations of the Cross every now & then, especially at 3 o'clock, the hour of mercy.

Another reminder that it's not wise to start all these suggestions at once! Patience, and do what you can. God knows you and will teach you how best to be with Him in due time.

[Chiquitunga]

Good advice, holly! Okay, and I just noticed my other comment is on page 1, so it might be missed .. here it is. God bless!

[quote name='Chiquitunga' timestamp='1289616553' post='2186813']
Yes! [url="http://www.rosary-center.org/secret.htm"][i]The Secret of the Rosary[/i][/url], by St. Louis de Montfort .. also making the Consecration to Jesus through Mary, according to his method, will greatly increase your prayer life .. Ven. Maria Teresa Quevedo did this and had a great devotion to this form of consecration to Our Lady .. everything about it is outlined in the book [url="http://www.amazon.com/True-Devotion-Mary-Louis-Monfort/dp/0895552795"][i]True Devotion to Mary[/i][/url] [/quote]

Oh also, I meant to add this here .. I know you love videos, Brandee .. and I found this one with a bunch of quotes from Holy Mother (to be!) with scenes from the movie [i]Jesus of Nazareth[/i] in the background. I grew up with this movie, so it particularly touches my heart, although I love[i] The Passion of the Christ [/i]much more, as I believe it portrays what Our Lord really went through much better .. and I like Jim Caviezel as Our Lord much more (notice his initials are J.C. .. and he was actually 33 yrs old, same as Our Lord, when he played this part!) Anyway, so there are a bunch of great quotes here .. and I would recommend watching this without the volume also and in slow motion, so you can really take in what she's saying. God bless!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZVefEKBwr0[/media]

Edited November 14, 2010 by Chiquitunga