4. What Prayer Is
Desire to grow closer to God.
An invitation to love.
A dialogue with love.
Wasting time with someone you love.
5. Fundamentals
Is is breaking any Commandments?
Is it leading you to – or away from Christ?
Is it affecting your prayer commitment?
Is it leading you to addictive behaviors? (Consolation)
6. Mechanics
Prayer is binary.
What did you set out to do? Did you do it?
Giving God space to speak to us:
You need silence.
You need time.
Eat something. Drink your coffee.
7. Mechanics
Finish what you start.
“Pray as you can – not as you can’t” (Mother
Teresa)
Use stuff.
Try it…. You can make mistakes…
… but give it a week before you change.
Mechanics is not mechanical (Devotions)
9. Emotions are ok, but ….
Movement of the heart is not an emotion.
Your intellect informs your emotions.
Your emotions inform your motivations.
Mother Teresa and darkness, consolation, and
desire.
Good of consolation vs. the consolation of
God… Which are you seeking?
You cannot be lead by your
emotions, but you must pay
attention to them…
It is there where the Holy Spirit
resides
St. Francis deSales
10. How do you know prayer is working?
If it’s true…
Peace
Fruit
Joy
Rationally checking your emotions
Launching pad to something more?
If it’s not…
Anxiety is not desolation.
“I never told you to do that.”
“Do whatever she tells you.”
Prayer isn’t a point system; it’s a
relationship.
It’s simply not working.
12. The Collect
CONCLUDING PRAYER
All-powerful and ever-living God,
You have been our source of power and inspiration.
Give us strength and joy in serving you as followers of Christ,
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and
ever ... Amen.
13. The Collect
CONCLUDING PRAYER
All-powerful and ever-living God,
[In the past….] You have been our source of power and inspiration.
[So, do now for us what you did back then and…] Give us strength
and joy in serving you as followers of Christ,
Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and
ever… Amen.
14. Catholic Prayer
(vs. Evangelical, Protestant…)
Prayer is not spiritual…..
only!
God enters into the material world in a bodily way (Incarnation)
God’s intimate involvement with the world (Sacraments)
Touches the entire person:
Physical
Emotional
Spiritual
15. Consolation As The Wellspring
Go back to it
Nothing is wrong; Not A Lament
Proof of God’s love for us
Speaking to you from your specific
experience in a new way.