Spirituality For Catholic Jedi, Part Six

We are exploring spirituality for Catholic Jedi by examining three related themes:

First: What Is “The Spiritual Life?”

Second: What Is Prayer?

Now let’s journey into the Third, Final Theme: How Should We Pray?

In previous Posts, we have explored WHAT prayer is.  But HOW do you do it?  How should we pray?

Fundamentally, there are two kinds of prayer: Vocal Prayer and Mental Prayer.

VOCAL PRAYER includes ASKING God, or PRAISING God, or THANKING God.
Vocal Prayer includes the “form prayers” we read from a book or learn in our religious education: the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, the Act of Contrition, the Rosary, etc.

MENTAL PRAYER, like meditation and contemplation, involves directing our thoughts and emotions toward God, without speaking, as you devoutly reflect on a chosen theme, a passage from the Scriptures, with the intention of deepening your spiritual insights and your love for God.

The deepest forms of prayer are MEDITATING upon and CONTEMPLATING the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures.  Meditation and Contemplation:

• Are more about feeling, rather than saying or doing anything.
• Are more about being aware of God;
• Are more about listening to the Father and Our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
• Are more about what God does for us, rather than anything we might do for Him.

To explain a little bit about Mental Prayer, about Meditation, I would ask you a question about house painting.
If you ask a really fine house painter what the most important part about painting is, what will he say? He will tell you, “It’s the preparation! Dusting down the walls, laying down tarps on the floor, covering the furniture, getting the correct brushes, etc.”
LIKEWISE, we must prepare for God’s coming to us in prayer: Prepare as eagerly as you would prepare for a visit with the dearest person in your life.

Four things are involved with preparing for praying: TIME , PLACE , POSTURE and SCRIPTURE.

First, prepare your TIME.

Within the profound experience of prayer, nothing can replace time.
I doubt that the Saints could ever have known what prayer is, if they had not decided at some point to pay the price for it, that is, to persevere in it, to give it time! After you do this, prayer will no longer be the same; it becomes part of your very body, your respiration, rhythms and cycles: IT WILL SET your biological clock.
Remember: It is the same with prayer as with learning any craft: Ease Is Proportionate To Regular Practice.   Everything else connected to praying – like PLACE , POSTURE and SCRIPTURE -- everything else is secondary to TIME!   You should NOT enter into prayer unless you have decided to spend time on it -- or to waste time on it, as certain people might think. The ideal is one full hour. But for our purposes, we’ll set the time to between 15 and 30 minutes.
In accepting -- submitting yourself to -- a certain length of time for prayer, you make a preliminary act of faith in the Holy Spirit's operation in your heart!
We believe that grace can transform poor creatures like ourselves – IF WE GIVE IT TIME!

Secondly, prepare your PLACE for praying:

Let me make a distinction between the PLACE that you pray in, and the LOCATION that you pray in.
The PLACE that prayer ALWAYS happens in, is your heart.
Prayer happens in the deepest part of your being -- not just in your head,
not just in your feelings -- but deep in your HEART!
Bring your PLACE of prayer --- YOUR HEART --- to a suitable LOCATION where you can be with God. Pick a quiet, private location where you can be alone and can openly speak and react to God's presence without drawing attention from others.

Thirdly, prepare your POSTURE for praying!

Your bodily posture is important in prayer. As you prepare to pray, choose a prayerful posture:
Relax yourself peacefully into a harmony of body WITH spirit.
Do you pray better kneeling? Then, kneel.
Do you feel more receptive and open to God's Word when sitting? Then, sit.
Experiment with various postures until you find one most conducive for peacefully listening to God and for responding to God's presence.
Take a few minutes to position yourself, to relax and quiet yourself down.
Relax your limbs and face muscles.
Hand over all your cares and concerns to your Guardian Angel (Yes, they do exist, and are real); let your Guardian Angel hold them for you, while you spend this time in prayer with the Lord.

Fourthly, prepare your SCRIPTURE for praying.
Reading prayers out of a prayer book, or praying a repetitive prayer, like the Rosary, help many people to be AWARE of God.
However, in order to fully open your heart to God, you need to use GOD’S WORDS in the Bible!
The best source of fuel for meditation and contemplative prayer is the New Testament: The Gospels in particular are the best.
Before your prayer time, prepare for your meditative praying by choosing one short Scripture passage -- 5 to 10 verses.

For example: Matthew 26:6-13, Our Lord Jesus with the woman who wept at His feet.
Or John 21:15-22, the Risen Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?”

Mark it in your Bible and have it ready. Read it once the night before, just as you turn out the light to go to sleep, or read it once the first thing as you wake in the morning.

OKAY! We are done preparing our Time, Place, Posture and Scripture. Woo-Hoo!
Now we begin to actually pray, to actually meditate!

To Be Continued . . .