Prayer Tips

As we are running around preparing for the birth of our Savior, I thought I would take a moment to offer a reflection on prayer.  This is a bit of a departure from the series on the papacy that Dr. Jeff Morrow has been posting and my discussion of orthodoxy.   While a departure, I hope that you find it helpful during these remaining days of Advent.

Prayer Tips:

1) Tweet God, because he is tweeting us.

Do you like Twitter?  I must be honest that I personally find no enjoyment in tweeting others about the moment by moment ongoings of my life and in many ways, I am not so interested in the every detail of others lives.  However, in our relationship with God, we are called to “pray without ceasing” or put another way, we are called to ”tweet” God.  Our communication with God should be ongoing and regular.  Unlike me, he wants and desires to have a constant dialogue with us, and loves every detail.  Furthermore, do you realize that he “tweets” us on a regular basis. This leads to the second tip–listening.

2)  Listen to God

More than just talking to God, we need to listen to him.  Listening can be difficult because it requires patience, stillness, and silence.  Silence can be difficult in a culture where we often need background noise. Sometimes, the silence can make us uncomfortable in our own skin. Listening is important in developing a deeper relationship with God. Can you imagine if I never listened to my wife and only talked to her?  Our relationship would be pretty poor.  Likewise, our relationship with God requires us listening. If we do all the talking, how do we know of the response?

3) A.C.T.S.

Can you imagine if in talking to my wife all I did was ask for things? Too often our prayer life can become a laundry list of things we want or need from God (supplication).  I have a friend that says before they ask for God for one thing they thank him 17 times!  We need to remember in our prayer life the other parts of prayer (and good communication): adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, before we run to the supplication. Again, think of your human relationships–saying sorry and thank you are really important and so they are with God!

4) Distractions

There are two types of distractions. The first is the ones we create in our surroundings and environment. If my wife wants to have a serious conversation with me, doing so during a football game that I am really into is probably not the best time. Likewise, we need to foster an environment of prayer when we come to God especially during our meditation or quiet times. This means turning off the radio, t.v. and cell phone. 

The second type of distraction is the ones that come during our prayer life by way of our mind wandering. These are normal! To counter them, we need to turn our focus and attention back to God and in doing so we honor God. This in and of itself is a prayer! At times, our distraction is due to a concern or aniexty. We should present it to the Lord in our prayer time.

5) God Answers our Prayers

It might not always be what we expect or the way we would have wanted, but he answers!  We should pray as a people of faith for confidence. Obviously the goal is to have our will line up with God’s will.

Once when I was dating my wife she was headed on a business trip. She called and told me she would not be able to make the Ash Wednesday mass because where they were heading there were no Catholic churches nearby and typically when they were working with their clients they were in a room working long hours without a break permitted. Over the phone I said, “Let’s pray about it.”  Being a little silly, I said, “God we know that you answer prayers and if it is in your will you will answer this one.  We also know that you are not bound by time, so if I pray something today, you could answer my prayer two hundred years earlier. And so God, I ask that you move a Church so that she can go to Mass.” The next day, I received a call that when she arrived at her hotel, a hotel they have never stayed at before, she opened her curtains and right out her window was a Catholic church. And, around Mass time when she was working, one of the people said to her, ’Are you Catholic? Let’s go to Mass!’” 

God answers prayers and will move a Church if necessary!

6) Pray is Communal

As the body of Christ, we should bring the concerns and needs of others to the Lord. Also, we should be willing to let others into what our needs and concerns are for prayer. We like to hold in our struggles and needs thinking we can deal with it on our own and that others wouldn’t want to be bothered. Have you ever been asked to pray for someone and then just said a two second prayer.

Over the last year, I learned about the wonderful prayer support of the Christian community. When my daughter was very young there was a concern that she had a fatal, genetic disorder.  Waiting for the results was painful. I kept the burden to myself. My wife reminded me that God once moved a church for us and said we should storm heaven with the prayers of others. We then asked people to pray.  People did and did they ever.  Rosaries, masses, prayer services were held.  I never felt so much support. It really helped me, but more importanty the results came back, and she didn’t have this fatal disorder. Our prayers were answered.

Let us also not forgot that the body of Christ extends beyond this life. In our prayer life, remembering Mary and the Saints is important!

7) Make Time for Prayer

Time management is important.  Beyond the ongoing tweating of God, we need to set aside certain times for prayer. I have a challenge for you that I call the 5 minute mission. Take a second to add up all the minutes you pray in your day. Now, your challenge is to pray 5 more minutes every day. Then next week, add 5 more minutes to that. Hopefully over time we will build pray habits. Bill Hybels has a book entitled: “Too Busy Not to Pray.” I love that title…it is so true! We need prayer to make it through our day. Set time aside in the morning before the day gets away from you to pray.  And remember, what ever you are currently doing–add 5 more minutes. You’ll thank me later!

There are many more tips we could discuss related to prayer and a whole post could be written on the fullness of prayer found in the Mass. But, for now I will leave it there.  If you have other prayer tips or suggestions feel free to send them via comments. We can all benefit from your suggestions. Also, if you have a story related to how God has answered your prayer(s) or has touched or moved you in your prayer life, feel free to share.