Prayer...

Virtues are formed by prayer.

Prayer preserves temperance.

Prayer suppresses anger.

Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.

Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit,

and raises man to Heaven.

~ St. Ephraem

On Jesus Alone...

We must pray without tiring,

for the salvation of mankind

does not depend on material success;

nor on sciences that cloud the intellect.

Neither does it depend on arms and human industries,

but on Jesus alone.

~ St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

If the Witch knew the true meaning of sacrifice,

she might have interpreted the deep magic differently.

That when a willing victim who has committed no treachery,

is killed in a traitor's stead,

the stone table will crack,

and even death itself would turn backwards.

Aslan in

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Keeping Close to Christ Throughout the Day

A wonderful way to call to mind Christ and our communion with Him is to offer up little ejaculations throughout the day.  These brief prayers, sometimes only a few words like, Jesus, I trust in You or simply uttering his name, can be powerful ways for us to pray. 

Perhaps you get a lot of phone calls or text messages.  Offer a little prayer to the Lord every time you receive one.  It can be a way to call you to prayer throughout what would otherwise be a busy day without much time to pray.

What's your favorite ejaculation?  We'd love to know -- just leave a comment to this post.

Prayer - the Key to God's Heart

We came across this quote by St. Padre Pio, whose feast day was yesterday, and thought it helped to break open what prayer is about.  We hope you find it helpful...

In books we seek God,

in prayer we find him. 

Prayer is the key

which opens God's heart.

~ St. Padre Pio

Prayer as the Key

In prayer, we see that Christ’s final victory over sin and death is the key to all history.  While giving thanks for this victory, we continue to beg God’s grace for our earthly journey.  Amid life’s evils, the Lord hears our prayers, strengthens our weakness, and enables us to trust in his sovereign power.  In our own prayer, and especially in our celebration of the Eucharist, may we grow in the hope of Christ’s coming in glory, experience the transforming power of his grace, and learn to discern all things in the light of faith.

~ Pope Benedict XVI

General Audience

September 12, 2012

A Taste for Prayer

The desire for prayer is that internal attraction towards prayer.  It is not a question of our attitude being "I ought to pray," but a question of "I want to pray."  It is true there is a midway stage where I can say, "I want to do what I ought to do."  And this is fair and proper, but is is insufficient.  There has to grow with us a desire for prayer, a nostalgia for prayer, a taste for prayer...  But the desire for prayer is something which comes, I suspect, only slowly and with practice.  I think it a truism of prayer to say that the desire for it, the taste for it, follows the practice of it.  It is not because we are drawn to prayer that we first begin to pray; more often we have to begin prayer, and then the taste and desire for it come.

~ Cardinal Basil Hume, OSB

in Praying with the Benedictines

Prayer comes from a humble heart...

Today's second reading at Vigils is taken from St Cyprian's treatise on the Lord's Prayer.  It is full of beautiful insights and well worth taking time to ponder.  We hope you find it as fruitful as we...

 

 

Let our speech and our petition be kept under discipline when we pray, and let us preserve quietness and modesty – for, remember, we are standing in God’s sight. We must please God’s eyes both with the movements of our body and with the way we use our voices. For just as a shameless man will be noisy with his cries, so it is fitting for the modest to pray in a moderate way. Furthermore, the Lord has taught us to pray in secret, in hidden and remote places, in our own bed-chambers – and this is most suitable for faith, since it shows us that God is everywhere and hears and sees everything, and in the fullness of his majesty is present even in hidden and secret places, as it is written I am a God close at hand and not a God far off. If a man hides himself in secret places, will I not see him? Do I not fill the whole of heaven and earth?, and, again, The eyes of God are everywhere, they see good and evil alike.

 

When we meet together with the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God’s priest, we should remember our modesty and discipline, not to broadcast our prayers at the tops of our voices, nor to throw before God, with undisciplined long-windedness, a petition that would be better made with more modesty: for after all God does not listen to the voice but to the heart, and he who sees our thoughts should not be pestered by our voices, as the Lord proves when he says: Why do you think evil in your hearts? – or again, All the churches shall know that it is I who test your motives and your thoughts.

In the first book of the Kings, Hannah, who is a type of the Church, observes that she prays to God not with loud petitions but silently and modestly within the very recesses of her heart. She spoke with hidden prayer but with manifest faith. She spoke not with her voice but with her heart, because she knew that that is how God hears, and she received what she sought because she asked for it with belief. The divine Scripture asserts this when it says: She spoke in her heart, and her lips moved, and her voice was not audible; and God listened to her. And we read in the Psalms: Speak in your hearts and in your beds, and be pierced. Again, the Holy Spirit teaches the same things through Jeremiah, saying: But it is in the heart that you should be worshipped, O Lord.

Beloved brethren, let the worshipper not forget how the publican prayed with the Pharisee in the temple – not with his eyes boldly raised up to heaven, nor with hands held up in pride; but beating his breast and confessing the sins within, he implored the help of the divine mercy. While the Pharisee was pleased with himself, it was the publican who deserved to be sanctified, since he placed his hope of salvation not in his confidence of innocence – since no-one is innocent – but he prayed, humbly confessing his sins, and he who pardons the humble heard his prayer.

The value of persistent prayer...

The value of persistent prayer

is not that God will hear us,

but that we will finally hear God.

~William McGill

Thoughts on Prayer from the Saints, Part V

We must pray without tiring,

for the salvation of mankind

does not depend on material success;

nor on sciences that cloud the intellect.

Neither does it depend

on arms and human industries,

but on Jesus alone.

~ St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

Thoughts on Prayer from the Saints, Part IV

"For me prayer is a surge of the heart,

it is a simple look towards Heaven,

it is a cry of recognition and of love,

embracing both trial and joy."

~ Saint Therese of Lisieux

Thoughts on Prayer from the Saints, Part III

Prayer reveals to souls

the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures.

It fills them with light,

strength and consolation;

and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss

of our heavenly home.

~ St. Rose of Viterbo

Thoughts on Prayer from the Saints, Part II

Virtues are formed by prayer.

Prayer preserves temperance.

Prayer suppresses anger.

Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.

Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit,

and raises man to Heaven.

~ St. Ephraem

Thoughts on Prayer from the Saints, Part I

Pray with great confidence,

with confidence based upon the goodness

and infinite generosity of God

and upon the promises of Jesus Christ.

God is a spring of living water

which flows unceasingly

into the hearts of those who pray.

~St. Louis de Montfort

Prayer - Meeting of the Human and the Divine

All prayer is a meeting between the human will and the will of God; for this we are indebted to the Son's obedience to the Father:  "Your will be done."  And obedience does not mean only renunciation of one's own will; it means opening one's spiritual eyes and ears to the Love which is God himself, God who loved the world so much thata for its sake he sacrificed his only-begotten Son.

~ Blessed John Paul II

in Sign of Contradiction

What is prayer?

What is prayer? 

It is the mind detached from earthly things

and the whole heart pointed

to that in which it hopes.

~ Isaac of Ninevah

Pray without ceasing...

If you want to pray “without ceasing”

never cease to long for God. 

The continuation of your longing

is the continuation of your prayer;

if you cease to long for him,

prayer ceases.

~ St. Augustine

Thoughts on prayer...

Prayer is called meditation

until it has produced the honey of devotion,

when it may become contemplation…

when the love of God takes possession of our hearts,

then we contemplate His goodness,

hoping to satisfy our love.

~ St. Francis de Sales