How to PRAY and not just SAY Prayers
How to PRAY and Not Just SAY Prayers
St. Teresa of Calcutta stressed the importance of PRAYING and not just SAYING our prayers.* How can we do that?
How to PRAY and not just SAY prayers
Awareness of God
We cannot see God with our physical eyes, but we can make an effort to be aware of Him in our hearts. For example, when we pray the rosary, we can pause and reflect on the mysteries. As we pray, we can walk in the steps of our Lord and our Blessed Mother. We can be aware of our surroundings and grateful for the blessings that God has given us. We can praise God and tell Him how much we love Him. Or we can put our concerns that can weigh so heavily on our hearts at the feet of our Lord.
Listening
Prayer is more than a one-way conversation. To pray is to listen with our hearts. By listening, we pause and are aware of the movements of the Holy Spirit. Instead of internalizing the noise of the world around us, we find inner quiet and converse with our Saviour. We can become aware of our deep need for God as we open our hearts to Him.
Connection
Prayer is our connection with God. Without it, our lives can become focussed on ourselves. Prayer is more than words or effort. It is time spent with our loving God. Then, prayer becomes “the oxygen of the soul” (St. Pio). It becomes as natural and necessary as breathing. We welcome God as our companion on our life’s journey.
What Keeps Us Praying
Prayer is not about our feelings or getting the answers we want. It’s about being aware of Who we are praying to and letting the words of the prayers sink deeply into our hearts. It’s about spending time with our loving God. Our connection with God grows stronger and closer as we pray this way.
When to Pray
We can invite God into every part of our lives. We can begin our day with prayer and ask for His guidance. Then, we continue the conversation throughout the day. In the evening, we can thank Him for the many blessings of the day and put our cares in His hands.
What is Prayer?
Prayer is the movement of the heart to a closer connection with God. When we pray from the heart, we reach out our hand to our loving God. When we do that, we discover something we may not have noticed before. He has been walking with us on our journey of life all along.
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CREDITS
The LOGO image of Our Lady of Grace is original artwork by Martin Lariviere in 2009. We have the artist’s permission (my son). It is our exclusive trademark logo image.
A beautifully photographed sky by Donald Tong inspired the website’s colour scheme. Cropped portions of it are the background for the footer Bible verse. He shared it as a free download on pexels.com.
Raphael painted The Sistine Madonna circa (1513-1514). We made circular cut-outs from the original image.
*”It is not enough to say the prayers, you have to pray the prayers; pray with your heart and mind.” (words of St. Teresa of Calcutta), Kolodiejchuk, Brian MC, Where There is Love, There is God. Mother Teresa: Her Path to Closer Union with God and Greater Love for Others; New York: Doubleday Religion, 2010. Copyright © 2010 by the Mother Teresa Center.
In 1871, Carl Bloch painted the healing of the blind man.
The photo of St. Teresa of Calcutta praying is a free image from HiClipart.com.
Wikipedia shared the photo of the young boy praying. It was originally posted on Flickr.
Philippe de Champaigne painted The Good Shepherd circa the 17th Century.
Lukas Rychvalsky from Pexels shared the photo of a silhouette against the morning sky.
In 1877, Robert Zund painted Zund Gang Nach Emmaus.
Our information is from general knowledge, experience, and shared internet resources. We’d like you to use it as a starting point for your research to verify facts and build a reference list.
IN REVIEW
- Awareness of God: Although we cannot see God with our physical eyes, we can make an effort to be aware of Him in our hearts.
- Listening: Prayer is more than a one-way conversation. To pray is to listen with our hearts and open our hearts to Him.
- Connection: Prayer is our connection with God. We grow closer to Him by spending time with Him.
- What Keeps us Praying? Prayer is not about our feelings or getting the answers we want. It’s about spending time with our loving God.
- When to Pray: We can invite God into every part of our day.
- What is prayer? It is the movement of the heart to a closer connection with God.