Personal Prayer

Hello again!

After my last post I received an e-mail from someone saying that it appeared that there was no emphasis on personal/contemplative prayer. He said that there must be the thought that there will be time for contemplation after we are dead. I merely hadn’t written about the personal prayer time since I was writing about the scheduled stuff in our busy days. There is actually a great deal of emphasis on personal prayer and I will write about that in just a little bit.

To update you, I did end up dropping my choir class. If you remember I was quite frustrated by many aspects of it. I had a great conversation with the choir director and noticed her working to address the concerns that I had raised. I decided however that on the whole it wasn’t worth it to take this class at this time. I may take it again in the future, or I will take the vocal practicum at a later point which will cover that requirement in the formation program.

Back to the personal prayer… This is a topic that is frequently brought up and emphasized as important. A person is to develop a way of making personal prayer a part of all liturgical prayer, as well as a part of their other time. We are not in formation to become contemplative monks who spend hours and hours on their knees in the chapel every day, that is an important calling for those who receive it, but we are being trained to be Diocesan Priests who are out serving the people of God. In this way it is great that we are busy and being formed in building prayer into all parts of our daily lives.

One of my favorite classes so far is Intro to Spiritual Life. In this class we are discussing the history of Christian Spirituality, and various methods of Christian Spirituality that we can adapt to ourselves. It is important for a priest to be well versed in this area, the priest may have one way that works best for him, but if he is to help all of the people he is shepherding to grow in their faith in the Lord he should know many different approaches to prayer.

In the Christian Catholic world the obviously most important part of one’s spiritual life is the Mass. In this we start out with opening up God’s word in the Liturgy of the Word (4 readings from Scripture in a Sunday Mass, 3 in weekday Mass, plus the homily in all) We then move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist by doing as Christ directed in His holy sacrifice of His Body and Blood.

Outside of the Mass there are other liturgical prayers which are important, but nowhere near the same as the Mass. Then there are also private devotional prayers that are prescribed as great ways to pray on the life of Christ, probably the most famous of these is the Rosary. The Rosary is a form of prayer in which one meditates on various mysteries of the faith (I’m sure if you Google “mysteries of the rosary” you will find them listed) while repeating scripturally based prayers. There are many other private devotional prayers that are embraced by different people.

Devotional prayer is not seen as a substitute for personal conversational/contemplative prayer. In this there are many different forms. One should always give thanks to God for what He has given us, which is everything. One should bring their needs to God, He already knows them, but wants us to ask Him for His assistance in all parts of our life. One of the most important things that someone should bring to God as a need is their sins. They should spend some time thinking about what their sins are, asking God for forgiveness, and asking God to help them to sin no more.

Spiritual reading is another great method of personal prayer. In this someone reads anything based on faith, scripture, saint stories, vocation stories, or just anything that opens the faith up more. While reading it someone takes time to reflect on what they have read and grows in their faith through that prayer. I will write about some of my spiritual reading as time goes on in the blog.

A great tool that has been given to us here to help with our personal prayer is the Examen, a prayer format that has been handed down by St. Ignatius of Loyola (the founder of the Jesuits). The parts of the Examen can take various amounts of time based on what one feels is needed. I will summarize the Examen sheet that I have sitting right next to my computer, this is something that I go through a couple of times a day just as prayer for myself.
1) Give Thanks: go over your day to give thanks for the great things that God has given… look at all aspects, the physical, the spiritual, the personal encounters, etc. Give Thanks to God for the good that has been part of your day.
2) Pray for God’s Light: In this you ask God to give you the grace to see Him in your day and to see how He would want you to see.
3) Replay the Day: This step may seem a lot like the first, but without giving thanks just think about all parts of your day, how can you find God in the good and the bad, in the actions you did and the encounters you had.
4) Express regret: figure out what you have done wrong, apologize to God for it. Apologize for the ways that you have failed to live up to what He wants.
5) Look forward to tomorrow: How will you find God tomorrow? Prepare yourself for the challenges to come, and ask God to help you get through and move forward as you go about the next day.

The last thing that I'll say about personal prayer in this post is that since people often ask for prayers I worry that I will forget them specifically. I have long kept a notecard that I write the names of those whom I wish to pray for on. Since I have been here I have expanded it to a small notepad that I keep in my brievary... I read this list and say a few prayers for these people a few times a day.

Peace,
Adam