RCIA

Class 11 -
Prayer
• It is simply impossible to lead,
without the aid of prayer, a
virtuous life.
--Saint John Chrysostom

• 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.
--Saint Ephraem of Syria
 As you journey toward the
Easter Vigil…
 We encourage you to develop your life of prayer,
so that, as you are on this journey (God willing) to
receive the sacraments,
 Some of you may get baptized, or receive Holy
Communion, that prayer will accompany you,
 Prayer is the food for our soul,
 It is our spiritual nourishment.
 That is why we didn’t want to wait until the very end
of the year to teach you how to pray,
 It is a vital way for us to connect with God.
 Prayer is one of the most important and greatest
topics that we’ll be covering in our class.
 House Keeping…
 Missing handouts from any class?…they are up
front here at the break, just ask….
 Welcome Rite? What is it?
 You and your sponsor need to be here on Sunday
November 24th at 9:30 in the church basement.
 Note the time change – we cannot practice today
because of the wedding pictures that are taking place
upstairs
 House Keeping…
 Look at the Syllabus –
 No class next Saturday because of the Rite on
Sunday morning
 Welcome Rite – Sunday November 24th
 No Class – Nov. 30th – Thanksgiving weekend for
you and your family
 Dec. 7th – class 10 – meet in the church
 We will take a tour of the church –
 Explanations of vessels, vestments, traditions and history
of the church
 Why do we do what we do?
 House keeping…
 Appointment with a priest before next Saturday
for interview– Fr. Braun or myself. I have my
calendar at class today.
 Mybrotherjesus.com – power points if you miss
class, or want to go back and review.
 Pictures on Sunday November 24th for the
welcome rite - we want the parish to recognize
you to reach out to you on Sunday so we will be
creating a bulletin board.
 Baptism certificates needed
 Any lingering questions you might have?
 Let’s start by looking at the
handouts…
 We will start with “Prayer: The Stairway to
Heaven.”
 What is unique about prayer?
 It has many definitions.
 One of the most beautiful is “prayer is the lifting
of our mind and heart to God.”
 Prayer is a conversation with God.
 It’s not just us talking to God – it involves us
listening to God.
 Prayer is a two way street
 Prayer is like a game of tennis – the ball goes back
and forth from one side of the court to another.
 Prayer is not like a game of golf where we just hit our
own ball every shot.
 Prayer involves a conversation -- a back and forth,
talking with God and listening to God.
 Prayer is the food of our soul.
 It’sour spiritual nourishment.
 It keeps us alive.
 On the very back of that sheet, at the very bottom, it
says, “As our body cannot live without nourishment,
so our soul cannot spiritually be kept alive without
prayer.”
 That’s how important prayer is.
 Relationships require
communication!
 Think about the day you first started school as a
child, how did you get to know the other students
in your class? What is the basis of that
relationship?
 It’s communication.
 If you’re engaged or married, you know how
important communication is to keep that
relationship healthy and strong.
 It’s the same thing with our relationship with God.
 More on Prayer
 Prayer is communication with God.
 On earth, when you want to get to know somebody, what
do you do?
 You spend time with the person,
 You talk to that person,
 You listen to that person.
 It’s the same thing with our relationship with God.
 If we want to have it healthy and strong, we want to
spend time with the one we love, namely God.
 Healthy relationships develop
with TIME!
 The sign of the healthy relationship with God is
how much time we spend in prayer with the
Lord.
 St. Augustine says, “Prayer is the key of
Heaven.”
 St. Louis of Grenada says, “Prayer is a royal
gate through which we enter into the very heart
of God.
 St. John Vianney says, “Prayer is union with
God.”
 St. John Chrysostom says, “God governs the
world, but prayer governs God Himself.”

 A powerful quote…
 One of the most powerful quotations from the
saints about the importance of prayer is from St.
Alphonsus,
 “He who prays is saved; he who prays not is
damned.”
 Prayer is absolutely vital for a healthy relationship
with God.
 If we pray, we’ll get the grace to be saved.
 If we don’t pray, we just won’t get that grace that
we need.
 We cannot SAVE ourselves!
 As you know, we cannot save ourselves.
 Eternal life, eternal salvation is a gift from God.
 How do we get the grace, which is the
supernatural power that we need, to obtain a
supernatural end?
 Realize that of our own human effort, it’s
impossible to save ourselves.
 Only by the grace of God can we be saved.
 Heaven is our home!
 Heaven is a supernatural destiny,
 We need a supernatural means to obtain a supernatural
end.
 That way in which we get the grace (or the power or the
strength) we need is through prayer.
 Why Prayer?
 The more we pray, the more grace we receive.
 The less we pray, the less grace we receive.
 It’s almost like recharging the batteries.
 Imagine if a car was running out of gas, you’re trying to run
your car without gas, it just won’t go anywhere.
 Our spiritual life won’t go anywhere if we don’t have the
grace which comes from prayer.
A different approach to how we
pray
 Let’s take a look at the different ways in which we
can pray.
 Perhaps the most simple and best way to explain it
is to use the word ALTAR, and have every letter
stand for a different type of prayer.
 There really are about five main kinds of prayer,
give or take some, but the easy way to remember it
is to use the word ALTAR, (spelling) “A,” “L,”
“T,” “A,” and “R.”
 “A” is for Adoration
 The“A” stands for Adoration.
 Adoration means to worship God, who is our
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
 Adoration is praising God, worshiping Him.
 Why adore him? We’re creatures; God is our
Creator.
 When we adore God, we’re really fulfilling our
purpose of why God created us.
 Why did God create us?
 God created us so we could be perfectly happy
with Him for all eternity.
 How we obtain eternal happiness is doing the
Lord’s holy will.
 The way we really fulfill our nature as creatures, as
creations of God, is to worship our Creator.
 When we worship God, we ourselves grow into the
fullness of what God has created us to be, namely,
children of God, made in His image and likeness.
 Webegin by adoring God, praising Him,
worshiping Him, that He is our Creator, our
Redeemer, and our Sanctifier.
 “L” is for Love
 The “L” is Love.
 We love God. Scripture says, “That we should love
God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and
mind.” – Luke 10:27
 In other words, love Him with all of our body, with
all of our intellect, and with all of our will, with all
the different facets of our person.
 We love God, and we can say simple prayers, like
“My God, I love Thee,” or, “Jesus, I love Thee.”
Love really is the heart.
 All the Ten Commandments can be summarized in
love of God, and love of neighbor
 “T” is for Thanksgiving!
 “T”, which is Thanksgiving, to give thanks to
God.
 We as creatures are called to be grateful to God, for
all the gifts He has given us – spiritual gifts, as well
as material blessings and benefits that we have in our
life.
 We think of the gift of life itself that God has
blessed us with. We thank Him for the gift of our
faith, our family, our homes, our health; all these
things we should spend some time every day
thanking God for the blessings He’s given us.
 Gratitude - Thanks
 We have been taught gratitude at a very young
age, and we need to teach our children to be
grateful.
 If you give them something, say, “Well, what do
you say?” And then, of course, they’re supposed to
say either “Please” or “Thank you.”
 It’s just good, proper manners.
 When we deal with God, who gave us everything,
we too should be sons and daughters of God, filled
with gratitude for all the wonderful blessings He’s
given us
 “A” is for asking
 Next, the “A” is Ask, asking God for what we
need.
 We call these petitionary prayers - asking Him to
help our parents, or children, brothers, or sisters.
 We can pray for ourselves.
 We can pray for others.
 We can pray for spiritual things.
 We can pray for material things.
 We should always ask God for what we need.

 Don’t hesitate to ask. Sometimes, most peoples’

prayers are spent entirely in this category, which is
a shame, because we need to round out our prayer
 “R” is for resolution
 Lastly,the “R” could stand for two different
words. One is make a Resolution.
 We’ve heard of New Year’s resolutions, where we
decide to exercise everyday, or lose weight, or quit
smoking.
 A resolution is a decision that we make that we
want to get better.
 In prayer, we could make a resolution maybe to be
more patient with family members, or to avoid
gossiping, or whatever it might be, or to always tell
the truth.
 A resolution is always a good way to end your
 “R” is for reparation!
 The “R” can also stand for Reparation.
 Reparation is really repairing the damage. It’s
asking God for forgiveness for our sins, so, it’s
repenting (the “R” could also stand for Repenting) of
our sins, telling God we’re sorry, and helping to
make up for them.
 There’s an interesting concept in prayer, that when
we sin, we do hurt our relationship with God.
By spending time in prayer, we can help heal the
damage that we’ve caused between our
relationship with us and God.
 Why reparation?
 Reparation is a way that we can pray for
forgiveness for ourselves as well as for others.
 Reparation is a very important part of prayer.
 It’s sort of helping to make up for our past sins, as
well as the sins of others.
 There are many sins out there in the world, that
we should offer reparation to the Lord for – the
sins of abortion, the sins of many other things we
should offer reparation, or to try to make up for,
all those people who don’t go to Church, or all the
people who commit all sorts of crimes, or sins.

 Pray with devotion and
tenderness
 Now take a look at the sheet called “Prayer: The
Stairway to Heaven,”
 This explains the seven main qualities of prayer.
 The first quality listed here is that we should always
pray with devotion, with tenderness – in other
words, praying from the heart.
 The Bible says (God is referring to the people) and He
says, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their
heart is far from Me.” – Matt. 15:8
 Somebody could be saying a lot of vocal prayers (a lot
of prayers with the lips), but perhaps, they’re not
praying truly with the heart.
 So, pray with devotion. Pray with tenderness
 Pray with fervor
 Second, the Bible says to pray with fervor.
 Fervor is really desire.
 Luke 22 - when Jesus was in the Agony in the
Garden,
 “He prayed all the more earnestly, so much so, that
His sweat became as drops of blood.”
 If you saw the movie The Passion of the Christ, you
see in that movie, Jesus sweating blood.
 He prayed with fervor, with intensity.
 Pray with perseverance!
 Third,the Bible says to pray with perseverance.
 Persevere in prayer.
 There are many examples in Scripture.
 Luke 11 - Jesus even tells a story about a man who
knocks on somebody’s door one night, and says, “A
friend of mine has just come in from a journey,
lend me three loaves.”
 And Jesus says, “If the fellow on the inside doesn’t
open the door because of friendship, he’ll certainly
open it because of perseverance.”
 If the person keeps knocking on the door, eventually
he’s not going to get any sleep anyway.

 Examples in Perseverance!
 We have examples in the history of the Church
of people who prayed with perseverance.
 Never give up on prayer.
 How many of you have heard of St. Augustine and
St. Monica?
 St. Augustine was her wayward son. He drifted
away from the Faith. For 20 years, his mother
prayed every day for Augustine’s conversion
back to the practice of the Faith. After about 20
years, he did come back to God. Augustine became a
great saint – he became a Bishop and a Doctor of the
Church. Monica’s persevering prayer was heard
 St Teresa of Avila
 St. Teresa of Avila says, “The devil knows that if a
soul perseveres in practicing prayer, that soul will
be lost to him.”
 Inother words, Satan will have no power over souls
that persevere in prayer.
 St. Catherine of Sienna says, “By humble and
faithful prayer, the soul acquires with time and
perseverance, every virtue.”
 Virtues are good habits, good qualities. If you persevere
in prayer, then you will grow in faith, hope, charity,
patience, humility, kindness, and generosity. You will
grow in virtues if you pray.
 Prayer everyday? How long?
 The handout talks about praying at least 15
minutes every single day.
 It’d be hard to imagine how a relationship with
boyfriend or girlfriend, or engaged couples, or
even husbands and wives, could survive if there
wasn’t at least 15 minutes of good, heart-to-
heart conversation every day.
 Scripture on prayer
 Luke 18, where Jesus says, “Pray always.”
 St. Paul says, “Pray without ceasing, and pray
at all times.” – 1 Thess. 5:17
 How is it possible to pray without ceasing?
 One way to do this is by, every day when you wake up,
make the Morning Offering, which is when you offer
and dedicate your whole day to God. Say “Lord, I offer
you today all of my prayers, works, joys, and
sufferings.”
 You offer up everything to the Lord that you’re going
to do that day.
 That way, your whole day becomes a prayer.
 Commit to daily devotions
 You have your daily devotions, your morning devotions.
 It’s important to pray at different times during the day.
 If prayer is food for your soul, you just don’t eat one meal a day.
 You eat probably something in the morning, something around
lunch, and something in the evening.
 Our prayers should be similar to that.
 When you wake up, you should have some time in the
morning for prayer, where you make the Morning Offering,
and offer the Lord everything – all the good things that will
happen to you, the difficulties, the struggles.
 Morning offering fulfills St.
Paul
 If you make the Morning Offering you fulfill what St.
Paul says,
 “Pray without ceasing, pray all the time.”
 It doesn’t mean that you have to be on your knees all the time,
but try to practice living in the presence of God.
 That God is always there by your side – He’s always there with
you.
 Pray with humility!
 Fourth, pray with humility – be humble when
you pray.
 James 4:6, “God resists the proud, but He gives
grace to the humble.”
 Luke 18:9-14, “The prayer of the humble person
pierces the clouds.”
 What a beautiful expression that is.
 Praying with humility, saying, “Lord, you are God,
and I am just a lowly human being - listen to my
prayer.”
 The more we humble ourselves, the more God will
exalt us. – Matt. 23:12
 Humility is key!
 TheBlessed Mother is a perfect example. Mary
was so humble, and yet God took her, and He
elevated her to be the Queen of Heaven and Earth
 – what a wonderful thing that is.
 Luke 18:10-13- There’s a parable in the Bible that
Jesus talked about how two men went into the
temple to pray.
 One was a Pharisee; the other was a tax collector.
 It said that the Pharisee went, and he prayed with his
head upright, and said, “Oh God, thank you for not
making me like the rest of men – greedy, and
adulterous, and selfish.”
 What is the difference?
 The Pharisee was praying with pride.
 He was telling God how great he was, and was happy
that he was not like the rest of these pagans, and how
he was so much better.
 See, he was telling God how great he was. And that was a
person filled with arrogance and pride.
 Whereas the tax collector said, “God, be merciful to
me, the sinner.” He even called himself the sinner, like
the worst sinner in the world.
 He admitted he needed God’s help.
 He admitted that he was not the source of his own being,
that God was in control of his life.
 The result was…
 “The humble man went home from the Temple justified,
whereas the Pharisee did not.”
 If you remember any one thing from tonight’s class,
remember to pray with humility.
 That’s the key to be humble, and then you’ll receive graces
from God.
 Pray with attention
 Then, fifth, pray with attention.
 Attention is realizing to whom we are praying.
 I guarantee if we were talking to the President of
the United States, or to the Pope, we would give
them our fullest attention, because whenever we
are with somebody of great importance,
 we’re not distracted.
 We focus on that person;
 we listen to what they say;
 we talk to them.
 How about God?
 How about God?
 How do we pray to God?
 Do we really realize who we’re talking to?
I mean, God is God.
 We should pray with the utmost respect and
attention, and to realize that there’s always going
to be distractions in prayer.
 You’re going to be praying, and all of a sudden, the
thought will come to you about this or that.
 There’s always going to be distractions in prayer, but
we should try not to give into them.
 Don’t get upset when you have distractions in prayer;
just let them drift by like clouds drifting by, or leaves
floating down the stream.
 What about distractions?
 Try not to wrestle with distractions.
 If you have distractions, just observe them, and
let them go past, and then gently bring your mind
back to prayer, to talking with the Lord.
 There’s all sorts of distractions in our busy life,
you know, telephones, and dogs, and kids, and all
sorts of things.
 There’s always going to be distractions, but let
them try to be involuntary distractions, not
deliberate distractions.
 What should we do?
 We should try to focus on our prayer life with the
Lord.
 There’s a story once how a man, who came up to
St. Anthony, and he said to St. Anthony, “I never
have any distractions in prayer!”
 St. Anthony says, “Well, I’ll bet you do. I bet
you’re just not being honest.”
 And the fellow says, “Nope, I can pray without
distraction.”
 St. Anthony says, “OK, if you can say the Lord’s
Prayer, the Our Father, without being distracted, I
 Pray with faith!
 Sixth is pray with faith.
 Heb. 11:6, “Without faith, it is impossible to
please God.”
 Matt. 19:26, “With men, it is impossible, but
with God, all things are possible.”
 So pray with great faith.
 Faith builds confidence and
trust!
 Pray with confidence, and pray with trust.
 One of the other aspects of prayer that is not on
your handout, is we should pray with confidence.
 Confidence and trust are very important virtues.
 Pray with confidence
 Now, I remember the old Dairy Queen cartoon
where Dennis the Menace hopped in the car and
said, “Dad, we’re all going to Dairy Queen; do you
want to drive?”
 He hopped in the car with his friends.
 That’s prayer with confidence, and that’s the
kind of confidence we should have in our
Heavenly Father.
 With confidence comes trust, to realize that
God is a loving Father.
 He’s not a hanging judge,
 Jesus says to pray like this…
 Andso, when Jesus said to pray the Our Father,
He said, “Pray Abba,” which is “Daddy.”
 That’s the kind of relationship He wants us to have
with God, our Heavenly Father
 Prayingwith confidence, praying with trust,
praying like a little child to His Heavenly
Father.
Pray in Accordance to the Will
of God!
 And then seventh, pray in accordance with
God’s will.
 Now, this is an interesting point here.
 It means praying with the right priority, namely,
always pray for God’s will.
 We sometimes get into the situation where we’re
always praying for our will.
 We’re telling God exactly what we want, and we
want God to always do our will; but really, that’s not
the way it should be.
 Thy Will Be Done…
 The mature Christian says, “Lord, Thy will be
done,” not “Thy will be changed,” or “My will be
done.”
 So many times we pray like that.
 Sam 3:10 “Speak Lord, for your servant is
listening,”
 NOT “Listen Lord, for your servant is speaking.”
 If we can develop that attitude of praying in
accordance with God’s will, we’ll be much more
at peace, and much happier.
 Thy Will…Not my will
 Jesus says, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup
of suffering pass Me by,” (this was in the Agony
in the Garden); “but not My will, but Thine be
done.” – Luke 22:42
 Even Jesus prayed the Father’s will be done,
not His own will.
 Will God answer prayer?
 Sometimes,people say, “Well, does God answer
my prayers? Will God answer my prayers?”
 God answers every prayer, and He has three
answers.
 Sometimes He says yes;
 sometimes He says no;
 sometimes He says wait, or keep praying.
 And that’s something to keep in mind – no prayer
is unanswered; no prayer is unheard.
 Why won’t he answer my
prayer?
 If what we’re praying for is not helpful to the
salvation of our soul, then God would not give
us that.
 If it is beneficial to our soul, then God would
grant us that; if it’s His holy will, of course.
 Sometimes you have people say, “I’m praying to
win the lottery.” You hear this a lot.
 Maybe if the person won the lottery, they could
lose their soul.
 Why?
 Those millions of dollars would corrupt them,

 What about the lottery
winners?
 But,there’s others that will win the lottery and
become better people.
 They’ll give a lot to God,
 a lot to the poor,
 a lot to the Church.
 There was a woman out in Baltimore who won 70
million dollars in the last couple years and she was
able to help rebuild some churches and do a lot
of good.
God will allow it if it is for our
good benefit
 So,sometimes God will allow things like that in
our life, but if it’s to our spiritual benefit.
 The best way to pray is you can pray really for
whatever you want, but in the end say, “Lord,
only if it’s Your will.”
Prayer is a grace, and prayer is
tough
 Prayer is tough, because sometimes you’re
praying for a sick child, and say, “Lord, please
help my child to recover.”
 And of course, that certainly would seem to be
what God would want, and that’s what we pray
for.
 It’s much harder for the parents to say, “Lord,
please heal my child, but Lord, Thy will be done.
 You know what’s best.
 You know what’s best for me.
 You know what’s best for the family.”
 When God doesn’t answer
prayer it can be for our benefit
 What’s interesting is that usually when God
doesn’t answer our prayers right away, it’s
really for our benefit.
 St. Monica never would have become St. Monica
if Augustine had been converted right away.
 If Augustine had been converted after six months
of prayer, she never would have become the great
saint that she was.
 She’s the one who developed an incredible prayer
life, because she prayed for her son Augustine for
20 years.
 GOD works through prayer
 Justkeep that in mind. You might say, “Well why
have I been praying for something for so long?”
 Realize that God is working on you as well when
you’re praying.
 God is very sneaky that way, isn’t He, because when
people ask you to pray for them, they themselves are
being brought closer to God.
 GOD can work through
tragedy!
 Think of the tragedies of something like
September 11th, and other things where so many
people prayed because of that – how God can
bring good and does bring good out of every
situation.
 At least hopefully, it brought our nation to its
knees in prayer and petition, and in praying for
peace, and for justice.
 Where is the best place to
pray?
 Where is the best place to pray?
 You can pray anywhere –
 you can pray at home;
 you can pray in the car
 You can pray out in the woods as you’re taking a
hike.
 you can really pray anywhere, because as you know,
we’re always in the presence of God.
 Even if somebody is hiking up a beautiful
mountain, God is there. Or, if they’re sitting on the
beach, they’re in the presence of God.
 Where is the best place to
pray?
 Where is the best place to pray?
 The best place is the House of God, which is the
Church, especially before the Blessed Sacrament in
the Tabernacle).
 Now, we haven’t gotten into the teachings yet on the
Eucharist, but I’ll just summarize, saying that since
the Eucharist is truly the Real Presence of Jesus
(Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity), when you pray
before the Tabernacle (which is the gold box in
which the Lord resides in Holy Communion), that’s
the best place to pray –
 That is to go before Jesus in Holy Communion
 Break Time!
 Any questions, comments, concerns, or
clarifications!
 Let’s take a 3 minute break for water, bathroom,
stretch or fresh air!
 Different forms of prayer
 Now, what are the different forms of prayer?
 There are really three different forms of prayer:
 vocal,
 mental,
 contemplation
 Vocal prayer
 Vocal prayer is prayers of the lips:
 praying Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s, Glory Be’s.
 These are what we would call formal prayers or
formalized prayers
 praying in the words of other people.
 Mental prayer
 Mental prayer (also called meditation), and by
meditation we don’t mean, let’s say, just sitting
down in the lotus position humming, or like other,
maybe Eastern religions would do, when you think
of meditation, you might think of that kind of
prayer.
 But meditation and mental prayer in a
Christian standpoint means reflecting on the
truths of God.
 It might mean taking a passage from the Bible and
 then meditating on it,

 Mental prayer
 Mental prayer really is
 thinking in the presence of God,
 talking to God in your own words,
 communicating with Him
 Let’s say, reading a passage about the Prodigal
Son, and then you meditate upon that, and you
think about that, and to apply it to your own life.
 Meditation
 Did any of you bring your Catechism today?
 You might want to write down paragraph 2700
through 2715. There’s a whole section in the back
of The Catechism called the “Expressions of
Prayer.” In the first part it says is Vocal Prayer,
such as the Our Father, and then Meditation, it
says the way to meditate in The Catechism, is to
use books – for example, the Bible, especially the
Gospels, other writings of the Church Fathers,
Spirituality.
 What we do then, it says, we read a few sentences
from there, and then we reflect upon it, think
 Contemplation…
 The highest form of prayer is contemplation.
 This is paragraph 2709.
 St. Teresa of Avila says, “Contemplation is, in
my opinion, nothing else than a close sharing
between friends. It means taking time
frequently to be alone with Him, who we know
loves us.”
 An example…
 There was an example of this in the life of St.
John Vianney.
 He walked into his church, and everyday he saw a
man sitting before the Tabernacle, before Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament, and he asked this elderly
man, “What does he say when he talks to
Jesus?”
 And the man says, “I just look at Jesus, and
Jesus looks at me.”
 Contemplative prayer goes
beyond words
 What’s so interesting about that is that’s
contemplative prayer- it goes beyond words.
 It’s not just a vocal prayer, or thinking about
and meditating, and reflecting.
 Contemplation really is just being in the
presence of God – and you might pass beyond
thought.
 You might just be in the loving presence of God,
gazing at the Tabernacle and Jesus, looking at
Him, and Him looking at you.
 The Cloud of Unknowing…
 That’s contemplation.
 There’s a book about this called The Cloud of
Unknowing.
 Some of you who are interested in prayer might
want to read that,
 It tells how God leads us from vocal prayer, through
mental prayer, to contemplation, which is the highest
form of prayer.
 Infused contemplation is
higher yet
 This is when some of the saints could just be
praying,
 They would be taken up into ecstasy,
 They would just be in the presence of God,
 completely filled with peace and happiness.
 In this state, they might not be saying anything,
just like you can be with your spouse, and you’re
just sitting next to each other, looking at a
beautiful sunset.
 It is not always just about
words
 Sometimes, You don’t have to say anything, but
you recognize God’s presence, just being in the
presence of each other, it goes beyond words, and
you love each other;
 you’re just in each other’s company, holding
hands, and really that’s what contemplation is
 Contemplation is like…
 holding hands with God,
 even without having to think about anything or
say anything,
 you’re just gazing upon the beauty of God,
 That is contemplation.
What does the Catechism say?
 The Catechism talks about contemplation
 It says the whole purpose of prayer, is
 to grow in union with God,
 to become one with the Lord,
 and to be united with God for all eternity.

 And the way we get to Heaven is through prayer.

The more we pray here, the easier it will be to be
with the Lord for all eternity
 Formal prayer
 Besidesvocal prayer, we have what we call
formal prayers.
 What is formal prayer?
 The formal prayers would be using other people’s
words when we pray, like the Our Father, the Hail
Mary, the Glory Be.
 We should also pray from the heart, and make up our
own prayers.
 Both of these are valid and necessary.
Don’t neglect prayer from your
heart!
 It’sgood to pray, it is good to memorize
prayers, and even standard prayers,
 Sometimes the psalmist, and people who write
these prayers from Scripture, like Psalm 51, and
Psalm 23, for example, “The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.”
 We should pray those prayers too, but don’t neglect
praying in your own words as well.
 An example…
 It’s one nice thing to get a Hallmark card from
somebody, which has beautiful sentiment.
 It’s another thing, when they write their own
words on it, and both are good, and both are valid;
 What if all you gave God were Hallmark cards,
you’d be missing something.
 If all you gave Him was your own message, well you
might not be able to say it as well as the Hallmark
card or as the saints have said it.
 That is why we pray with both.
 Use formal prayers, prayers of other people,
The Rosary – the prayer of the
gospel
 The Rosary, which is the Prayer of the Gospel.
 The Rosary really is a way to meditate upon the
life of Christ.
 And always remember that the Rosary is a Christ-
centered prayer.
 Jesus is the very focus of the whole Rosary. Even
the Hail Mary, at the very heart of the Hail Mary,
is the word Jesus. “Hail Mary, full of grace, the
Lord is with you, blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
 He’s right at the heart. “Holy Mary, mother of
 How do I pray the Rosary?
 The way to pray the Rosary is very easy. It’s
primarily an Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and a
Glory Be.
 Now, at the first part of the Rosary, we actually
say the Apostle’s Creed.
 You make the Sign of the Cross – “In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit,”,
 and it’s customary, many people, you know, will
kiss the Crucifix.
 You hold the Crucifix, and you say the Apostle’s
 Rosary continued…
 After that, we announce the First Mystery.
 There are currently four sets of Mysteries
– the Joyful Mysteries,
 the Luminous Mysteries,
 the Sorrowful Mysteries,
 the Glorious Mysteries.
 Rosary meditation
 Forexample, take a look at your sheet, and you’ll
see, let’s say, the fifth Sorrowful Mystery, is the
Crucifixion.
 What we would do then is we try to mediate and
think about the Crucifixion.
 You picture it in your mind.
 You think about Mary standing at the foot of Jesus’
Cross.
 You think about John the Evangelist next to her, and
you see Jesus on the Cross in your mind.
 Live the mysteries
 If you saw the movie The Passion, it will really bring
the Rosary alive for you.
 You’ll think that you see the two thieves,
 the one thief on the one side,
 the one thief on the other,
 and then you see Jesus on the Cross, dying for our sins, and
blood dripping down from Him.
 And what you do then, is as you are thinking about that,
picturing that in your mind, you then say the Our Father,
the 10 Hail Mary’s, and the Glory Be. That’s called a
Mystery, or an event, in the Life of Christ.
 Rosary is for meditation
 The Rosary is 20 events in the life of Jesus and
his Mother that we meditate upon.
 The Rosary is the way to really get into the
Scriptures, to picture that scene in your mind.
 Take a look at the third Joyful Mystery, the
Nativity.
 When you picture that in your mind, sometimes it
does help to look at the photograph of it, or the
picture of it.
 You think of the baby Jesus, and them trying to find
a place for Him to be born.
 They finally find the cave. There’s animals in the
 Rosary has two parts
 The Rosary has two parts
– it has a body
 It has a soul.
 The body of the Rosary is the prayers (the Our
Father’s, the Hail Mary’s),
 The soul of the Rosary, the really heart of the
Rosary, is the meditating upon the Mysteries.
 The history of the rosary!
 Originally the Rosary had 150 Hail Mary’s, and
that was based upon the 150 Psalms in the Old
Testament.
 There was a time when a lot of people obviously
were illiterate (they could not read the Psalms),
and so what they would do is they would make
beads, and for every Psalm that would be read to
them, they would listen, and maybe move their
fingers, and then go through the Psalms, 150 of
them.
 Now 20 mysteries
 For the last almost 800 years, there were 15
Mysteries in the Rosary – the Joyful Mysteries,
the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious
Mysteries.
 See, each of the sets of Mysteries has 50 Hail
Mary’s, so the 15 was 150.
 Now, Pope John Paul II, under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, added five more Mysteries to the
Rosary, giving us another 50 Hail Mary’s.
 Now we have 200 Hail Mary’s in the entire
Rosary.
 The handout shows us the
rosary is the life of Christ!
 Ifa person were to pray the whole Rosary every
day, they would get the entire life of Christ that
they would be reflecting upon and thinking about.
 Notice that the Rosary really is Christo-centric;
 Christ is the very heart and soul of the Rosary,
because the Rosary really is the Gospel.
 What is the gospel?
 And what is the Gospel?
 The Gospel’s not a something;
 the Gospel is a someone.
 The Gospel is Christ.
 By praying the Rosary, we’re praying the life of
Christ, which is praying Christ Himself.
 As we begin to pray the Rosary more and more, we
begin to get to know Jesus better, because we’re
praying Jesus, and He is becoming really part of our
heart and part of our soul, and we begin to interiorize
the life of Christ within us.
 Joyful Mysteries
 When we look at the Joyful Mysteries,
 we see that they’re focused upon how Jesus was
conceived in Mary’s womb by the power of the
Holy Spirit;
 when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and
John the Baptist was sanctified;
 and the birth of Jesus;
 His Presentation in the Temple;
 and the finding of Jesus in the Temple.
A secret to the Joyful Mysteries
 One
of the secrets to praying the Joyful
Mysteries is ask Mary,
 “Mary, how did it feel?
 What was it like when the angel Gabriel came to you
and asked you to become the Mother of God?
 Mary, what was it like to visit your cousin
Elizabeth?
 Mary, how did it feel to give birth to Jesus, in a cave
in Bethlehem?
 Mary, what was it like when Simeon took the baby
Jesus and said, ‘Now I can die in peace.’
 Mary, what was going on in your heart when you
 Luminous and Sorrowful
Mysteries
 In the Luminous and Sorrowful Mysteries,
 we ask Jesus,
 “Jesus, what was it like to be baptized in the Jordan
by John?
 To change water into wine at the wedding feast of
Cana?
 To be transfigured to institute the Eucharist?
 Jesus, what was it like to sweat blood in the Agony
in the Garden, to have all the sins of the world
come down upon You?
 Jesus, what was it like, how did it feel to be
scourged at the pillar, to be crowned with thorns,
 The Glorious Mysteries
 And then in the Glorious Mysteries,
 you ask the early Christians what was it like.
 “Early Christians, what was it like to have Jesus
risen from the dead,
 and to see Him ascend to Heaven,
 and to have the Holy Spirit come down upon you,
 and to know that Mary was taken up into Heaven,
 and that she’s crowned as Queen of Heaven and
Earth?”
 Biblical basis…
 All the Mysteries of the Rosary are found in the
Bible.
 Of course, all of them are very easy to find.
 Sometimes the last two, the Assumption, and the
Coronation, you have to go to other passages.
 For example, the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12,
when John sees the woman clothed with the crown
of 12 stars.
 That would be the Assumption and Coronation of
Mary. That’s not directly mentioned in Scripture, but
it can be induced and inferred from Scripture, based
upon the Book of Revelation, in the vision that John
 The whole gospel is the life of
Christ
 The whole Gospel really is the life of Christ, and
as we meditate upon it, we get to know Jesus
better.
 So many times we read the Bible, but do we
pray the Bible?
 This is how you pray the Bible.
 This is how you pray the life of Christ.
 It’s one thing to open your Bible and to read about
“Jesus carries the Cross.”
 It’s another thing to take a couple of minutes and
try to picture Jesus carrying the Cross, and Simon
Pope’s reflection on the rosary
 In your handout number 3, you’ll see the Pope’s
reflections upon Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful,
and Glorious Mysteries, and these are the prayers
that make up the Rosary:
 the Sign of the Cross, the Apostle’s Creed, the Our
Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, and the Hail
Holy Queen.
 The Our Father is the most perfect prayer ever
written, because who invented the Our Father?
 It was Christ.
 Our Father
 And He said, “When you pray, pray Abba (Daddy),
who art in Heaven, hallowed be Your name.”
 In other words, may we hold Your name sacred and
holy, that we never use it in vain, lightly, or carelessly.
 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it
is in Heaven. Give us each day our daily bread.” And
then we pray, “Forgive me my sins, as I’m willing to
forgive those who sin against me, and lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
 The Whole Rosary = 20
decades
 The Our Father is said five times during the
praying of the Mysteries, and again the Mysteries
are divided up into four sets of five Mysteries.
 How long does it take to pray the Rosary?
 About 15 minutes.
 Ifyou said the whole Rosary, you’re talking about
an hour.
 The Pope prays the whole Rosary every day.
 He prays all 200 Hail Mary’s, all the Mysteries of
the Rosary
 Sweet sounding music…
 And
again, the Our Father’s and the Hail
Mary’s, they’re like the background music.
 You know, if you’re watching a movie, you have the
soundtrack in the back, but you’re looking at the
scene;
 the Our Father’s and the Hail Mary’s are like the
background music,
 and the heart of the Mysteries is thinking about it,
and picturing it in your mind.
 More than just words…
 That’s where it’s the most powerful. Now, is it okay just to
pray the Rosary, and just say the Our Father’s and the Hail
Mary’s?
 Sure, you can just focus on the Our Father’s and the Hail Mary’s,
 but you’d be missing the best part of the Rosary, which is trying
to picture the scene.
 Think about the Agony in the Garden.
 Think about the Crucifixion.
 Think about the Resurrection.
 Hail Mary
 Then the prayer, the Hail Mary.
 The first part of the Hail Mary comes from the angel
Gabriel, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women.”
 Which is amazing, out of all the billions of women
ever created,
 Mary is the most blessed. “And blessed is the Fruit of
thy womb, Jesus.”
 Again, Jesus is the heart of the Hail Mary, and the
Rosary.
 Pray for us when?
 “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.”
 When?
 Right now, and at the hour of our death.
 The two times we need prayer – right now, and at the hour of our
death.
 When we say one Rosary, we’re storing up for
ourselves 50 prayers at the hour of our death.
 Yes, we’re praying right now 50 times for Mary to pray
for us.
 Intercessory prayer…
 Is it okay to ask Mary to pray for us? Of course – just as I
can pray for you, and you can pray for me, right?
 And you can meet somebody, and say “Oh, please pray for
me; pray for my son; pray for my daughter.”
 Just as you ask people to pray for you, so we’re asking Mary
to pray for us.
 Mary leads us to Jesus
 We don’t worship Mary;
 we don’t adore Mary.
 We’re asking her to pray for us, and to go to Jesus with us,
and for us, just as she did at the wedding feast of Cana.
 And she said, “Jesus, they have no more wine.”
 Jesus worked His first miracle, because Mary asked Him to.
 Mary will be covered next class in detail!
 Prayers – now and at death
 Suffice it to say, we say, “Mary, pray for us
sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.”
 Fifty times we’re saying, “Mary, pray for me
now”;
 but also 50 times we’re asking her to pray for us,
at the hour of our death, which is when we need
prayers especially, as we’re passing from this
world into the next world.
 Rosary as a weapon?
I like to consider the Rosary like David’s sling in
the Old Testament.
 Many of you are familiar with the story of David
and Goliath.
 Goliath was huge, with armor, and shield, and
sword.
 All David had was a slingshot.
 He had picked up five stones from the creek – sort of
reminds us of the five decades of the Rosary.
 In fact, each of these is called a decade (for the 10
Hail Mary’s). A Rosary has five decades.
 The entire Rosary has 20 decades. David picked up
 What evils do we face today?
 Now, we have Goliaths in our modern society.
 We have terrorism.
 We have all sorts of crime, and immorality.
 What can we do to fight against all the evils of the world? Right
here – the prayer of the Rosary.
 The Our Father’s, the Hail Mary’s, and then meditating upon the
Bible.
 I highly recommend that you begin by praying the Rosary as you
begin this journey to the Lord, to get closer to Jesus, and to the
Heavenly Father
 Family rosary = a good idea
 If you don’t have enough time to pray the whole
five decades every day,
 start out with a decade a day.
 “A decade a day keeps the devil away, as I always
say.” Pray a decade. It’ll take you about two
minutes, probably three minutes, to pray a decade,
 which is one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s, and the
Glory Be.
 Ifyou can, do it with the family. Right after dinner
say, “Let’s pray a decade of the Rosary.”
 And then, you can just go through this entire
 Pick different mysteries
 The next day, think about the Scourging at the
Pillar;
 the next day, the Crowning with Thorns;
 the next day, the Carrying of the Cross.
 On what day do I pray these
different mysteries?
 The way it’s recommended is that
 on Mondays we say the Joyful Mysteries,
 on Tuesdays the Sorrowful Mysteries,
 Wednesday the Glorious Mysteries,
 Thursday the Luminous Mysteries,
 Friday the Sorrowful Mysteries (because of Good
Friday),
 Saturday the Joyful Mysteries,
 and then Sunday, the Glorious Mysteries again.
 Seasonal decades? Yes!
 But, during Lent, I like to say the Sorrowful
Mysteries every day.
 During Advent, I say the Joyful Mysteries every day.
 During the Easter season, I say the Glorious
Mysteries every single day
 Prayer softens hearts
 One thing that prayer will do,
 it will solve all your problems
 – did you know that?
 See, prayer will solve all your problems.
 Whatever problems you have – financial problems,
job problems, relationship problems, marriage
problems, whatever problems you have, God can
solve your problems through the power of prayer.
 Mass is the perfect prayer
 And really, the greatest prayers we have in the
Church, the most important prayer we have in
the Church, is the Mass.
 When you come to Mass on Sundays, or on
weekdays, the Mass is the greatest prayer.
 If somebody says, “Well, what’s the most
important prayer in the Church?, it’s the Mass;
 because the Mass is Jesus offering Himself to
the Father – it’s when we receive Jesus in Holy
Communion
 Liturgy of the Hours
 The second greatest prayer in the Church is
called the Liturgy of the Hours.
 The Liturgy of the Hours is also called the Divine
Office, hours referring to the different hours of the
day:
 morning prayer,
 daytime prayer,
 evening prayer
 or night prayer.
 Liturgy of the Hours are
prayed every day
 Every priest and nun prays this every single day.
 In the liturgy of the hours, You pray five times a
day.
 You pray morning prayer,
 daytime prayer,
 evening prayer,
 night prayer,
 and the Office of Readings
Liturgy of the Hours - psalms
 These Liturgy of the Hours prayers are divided up.
 They’re really the Psalms from the Old Testament,
and then other prayers, and it’s divided up.
 The Pope prays this every day.
 It takes about 45 minutes to an hour every day to
pray these prayers, and every priest and every nun
has to pray these prayers every day.
 So, we read the Bible for at least 45 minutes each
day, which is what it takes to pray.
 Liturgy of the Hours divided
up
 How is it divided up.
 Morning prayer takes 10 or 15 minutes.
 Evening prayer takes 10 or 15 minutes.
 Daytime and night prayer take about 5 minutes.
 Office of Readings takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
 TheLiturgy of the Hours is called the Official
Prayer of the Church, and if you really wanted to
again deepen your prayer life you might want to
consider learning more about the Liturgy of the
Hours, and to pray those Psalms from the Old
Testament.
 3rd most important prayer -
Rosary
 The third most important prayer is the Rosary.
 But I think the reason why we focus on the Rosary
so much is because it’s primarily just the priests
and the nuns who pray the Liturgy of the Hours,
because it takes, you know, 45 minutes or so to
pray every day, even though a lot of lay people are
also praying the Liturgy of the Hours.
 I would recommend it if you could get a copy of
this and learn how to pray that.
 Many places to pray
 The reason why we focus on the Rosary is because
it’s something very quick, and very easy to learn.
 You can actually say it in your car when you’re
driving.
 Again, just don’t close your eyes and don’t
meditate too much, you know.
 Well actually, one of the things you could do is
you could get the tapes or CD’s with the Rosary
on them, and you can actually listen to it, and say
the prayers along with it.
 We actually have copies of the CD out there if any
 Pray every day
 Begin to pray the Rosary every day, and hopefully
at Easter somebody will give you a really nice
Rosary as a gift.
 But in the meantime, you can use a handmade,
inexpensive ones. You will find it just an
incredibly beautiful prayer.
 Let us together pray the Hail Mary, as we ask our
Blessed Mother to lead each one of you closer to
her Son, Jesus, and to have a more intimate
relationship with the Lord