How Do You Pray?

[Gabriela]

Does anyone have tips for:

 

1) Figuring out which type of prayer is best for you?

 

2) Getting into a prayer routine that you will STICK with?

 

3) "Advancing" in prayer (i.e., getting better at it)?

 

Good thread, Amppax. Thanks! :-)

[ChristinaTherese]

Does anyone have tips for:

 

1) Figuring out which type of prayer is best for you?

 

2) Getting into a prayer routine that you will STICK with?

 

3) "Advancing" in prayer (i.e., getting better at it)?

 

Good thread, Amppax. Thanks! :-)

Dunno about 1 and 3, but I just write down a schedule with classes, prayer times, meal times, whatever and try to follow it more or less. And by that I mean I might be half and hour to an hour late depending. (And I still don't stick with things by the end of the school year... ugh. College really wears me down, but I can't do anything about that right now....)

[Amppax]

Does anyone have tips for:

1) Figuring out which type of prayer is best for you?

2) Getting into a prayer routine that you will STICK with?

3) "Advancing" in prayer (i.e., getting better at it)?

Good thread, Amppax. Thanks! :-)

My answers:

1- experiment. There are so many different ways of praying. That was one of my thoughts when I started this thread, I was hoping that people would learn new and different ways to pray.

2- make praying a priority. Start with something you know you can commit to, like five minutes of something a day, or whatever commitment you know you can keep. Having some sort of schedule really helps me, and I try to make prayer my 1st priority.

3- pray. Practice is the only way to get better at prayer. Also, would guess that spiritual direction could also be a great help. But above all pray, and you assuredly will grow.

[Amppax]

Bump.

[Guest Allie]

Being a Capuchin I use the Franciscan pattern of prayer, it is St Clare of Assisi, St Francis’ partner in defining the Franciscan way of life, who gives us the four-part Franciscan approach to prayer in her second letter to Agnes of Prague: to gaze, to consider, to contemplate, and to imitate (20-21). a four-fold pattern that, while similar to other monastic disciplines, has differences unique to the Franciscan tradition. Monks typically did not include anything like imitation in their definitions of prayer. By highlighting the imitation of Christ who is our partner in prayer, Franciscans clearly announce that a changed life is part of prayer, and not its consequence.

 

.  The four steps are referred to as: gazing, considering, contemplating, and imitating.

• To Gaze: Similar to the discipline of reading the Scripture, St. Clare intentionally used the visually influenced term because she understood that many people of her time were illiterate, glean a great deal of the Gospel story through icons, fresco and other visual displays.  Francis practiced this a great deal, starting the first live nativity, barn animals and all.  Beyond literacy, though, the intent was to center us on the reality of the texts, reinforcing the deeply incarnational convictions of the Franciscans.

 

• To Consider: Again paralleling the monastic discipline of meditation, Clare framed it is terms that the common people could understand.  Here she appealed to the imagination, to invite us into the text as though we were physically present.  Again, the incarnational emphasis is central to the process, as it was for Francis too.

 

• To Contemplate: Explicitly using the term common to other monastics.  Not to be confused with consideration/meditation, this was the mystical discipline in which we seek to be present with the God who is eternally present with us.  It was a prayer of silence, of emptying oneself to all but the Spirit of Christ within us.  Clare knew that if we truly entered into the Gospels through gazing and consideration, begin to encounter the intimate presence of God in and around us.

 

• To Imitate: This fourth step is what sets the Franciscan pattern of prayer apart.  While many others have emphasized imitation of Christ, most believed that such behaviour was the fruit of prayer.  Francis and Clare knew that the imitation of Christ was, itself, the culmination of prayer.  For many, prayer was meant to bring them into a state of spiritual ecstasy or peace or love in God’s presence.  However, the Franciscan tradition understood that we encounter the presence of Christ most genuinely when we live His truth with our own lives.  After all, we are the Body of Christ, the incarnate presence, united and empowered by the very present Spirit of God within us.

I have found this pattern of prayer helpful. 

Thank you.