FOURTH CONFERENCE

OF THE

CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT

KINDS AND METHOD OF PRAYER

There are numerous kinds of prayer. For the purpose of this conference, we shall treat five kinds of prayer. They are:

Prayer of Praise

Prayer of Thanks

Prayer of Petition

Prayer of Adoration

Prayer of Consolation

Prayer of praise: This is an act of recognising God’s qualities especially His unconditional love and infinite goodness. Example Ps117:1 – 2

Prayer of thanks: Prayer of thanks is an act of recognising God’s gifts and graces we received from Him. Example Ps75:1, Mt 11:25 – 26

Prayer of petition:

It is an act of seeking of God the gifts we need for ourselves and for our society, trusting in God’s love and His power. Example Prov. 30: 7 – 9

QUESTION

QUESTION 1: God knows what is needed for our lives. Then, why should we ask God for what we need?

We should ask God hoping that He may change His plan and do what we are asking for. Jn 3:10, Jn 2:4

The second reason why we should ask God is that God does not want to impose anything on us. Ex 2:23 – 25

Prayer of petition helps us to be humble.

QUESTION

QUESTION 2: Will God hear all our prayers? We answer in two ways:

If what a person asks of God is not in harmony or in consonance with the ministry he or she does or he or she is to do in future, God will not give such a person what he or she asks of Him. 2Cor 12:7 – 9

If what we want will be harmful to the people around us, taking into consideration the larger interest of the people around us, God will not give us what we want.

Prayer of adoration: To adore means to love deeply and respect somebody highly. In the light of prayer, it means to worship God, that is, to love and respect God.

Love here means affection.

The Act of Adoration Goes with:

Remaining in silence and looking at God with deep love and great respect

Closing the wings of our intellect. Hence we open the ears of our minds and heart and listen to God.

Breaking off from our cares and troubles

Sitting at the face of the Lord and getting warmed up by the fire of His love

Bowing down before God and remaining in silence

Prayer of consolation: Consolation is a higher form of adoration. It is adoration which an intimate friend offers to his friend. In prayer, consolation is sacrificing oneself to God as an act of adoration. (Jn 15:13) ‘No love is greater than this: to lay down your life for the one you love’. This is the adoration the victim souls and martyrs offered to God.

METHODS OF PRAYER We have three important methods of prayer:

Vocal Prayer

Mental Prayer or Meditation

Contemplative or Silent Prayer

TRIANGLE OF PRAYER MENTAL PRAYER

REST +FLAME OF LOVE

VOICE OF SILENCE = FLAME OF LOVE

SILENCE OF VOICE = REST

Vocal Prayer Vocal Prayer: Vocal prayer means a prayer

voiced or expressed in words. It could be a prayer or a song or any form of prayer uttered by mouth.

Note: “If vocal prayer is to be meaningful, it must be induced by love of God or neighbour or one’s own spiritual growth, one must recite it with the correct knowledge of the meaning of the prayer uttered with full attention and with a purity of heart”.

Example: Our Father, Hail Mary, Rosary, Precious Blood prayers

SOME POWERFUL VOCAL PRAYERS

Our Lord’s Prayer

The Holy Rosary

The Chaplet of the Precious Blood

OUR LORD’S PRAYER MATT. 6:9-13

The Lord’s Prayer is primarily a prayer of petition. It contains seven petitions:

Hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts.

Do not bring us to the time of trial.

Rescue us from the evil one.

THE IMPLICATION OF THE SEVEN PETITIONS

Hallowed be your Name: Hallowed means praised. Here, Jesus wishes that his disciples should praise the Father. In Acts, we see a man praising God for the favour received. Act 3:1-8

THE IMPLICATION OF THE SEVEN PETITIONS

Your Kingdom come: St. Paul in his letter to the Romans

writes; “For the Kingdom of God is not food and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:42). So here, we pray to the Father that righteousness, peace and joy may reign in this world.

Your Will be done:

The Will of God is that each human being in the world should totally give himself or herself to the welfare of humanity. Jesus did this (Luke 22:42). Jesus died for humanity (Jn. 19:30).

THE IMPLICATION OF THE SEVEN

PETITIONS

THE IMPLICATION OF THE SEVEN PETITIONS

Give us this day our daily bread: Through this petition Jesus directs his

disciples to rely on God’s providence. Forgive us our debts: Here Jesus bids his disciples to

acknowledge that they are all sinners. St. Paul admits that all of us are sinners, (Rom. 3:9-15) and so all of us are to pray to the Father.” Forgive us our trespasses.

THE IMPLICATION OF THE SEVEN PETITIONS

Do not bring us to the time of trial:

St. James says: “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God.” For God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it”. (James 1:13-14) according to him God the Father is the giver of perfect gifts (James 1:17). “When that desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:15).

THE IMPLICATION OF THE SEVEN PETITIONS Rescue us from the evil one: There is but one evil, and that is sin.

There is but one sin; not to love. This means to separate ourselves from God or to withdraw ourselves from the mercy of God. Hence, deliverance from evil is a must for salvation and spiritual growth.

THE HOLY ROSARY AND ORIGIN

The Rosary is a vocal prayer in as much as we recite it and it is also mental prayer in as much as we, during recitation of the Rosary reflect or meditate over the 20 mysteries related to the life of Jesus and Mary.

ORIGIN OF ROSARY

We are not sure of the year. Instead recitation of 150 psalms, for the uneducated was practiced with the help of a string of beads or knots or pebbles. The string used for commentary on the ‘Our Father’ was called ‘pater nosteré beads. i.e. “Our Father bead”, later Hail was added as ‘Marian Psalter.’

GIVEN TO ST. DOMINIC ST. DOMINIC (1170-1221):

The Rosary more or less in its form was given to the church by St. Dominic.

THE ROSARY AND BENEFITS

THE NAME ‘ROSARY’:

Till 1460 the name used by the people for the Rosary was ‘Psalter of Jesus and Mary.’ When Alcan dela Roche began to preach about the value and the significance of the Rosary, the common people began to call the Psalter of Jesus and Mary the Rosary.

BENEFITS OF THE ROSARY:

The Rosary gradually

leads us to the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ.

It purifies our souls, washing away our sins. As the Blessed Virgin Mary intercedes for us with God, our sins are forgiven.

THE CHAPLET OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD AND THE DEVOTION TO THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST

THE DEVOTION OF THE ELECT:

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which wine is changed into the Blood of Christ, is a continuation of the bloody sacrifice of Calvary, where Christ fulfilled the figurative meaning of the bloody victims of the past. Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:26.

The Chaplet of the Precious Blood is also a vocal prayer in as much as we recite it and as well as mental prayer in as much as we meditate on the price of redemption.

CHAPLET OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD THE BEADS ARE TWELVE IN NUMBER:

Just as Elijah took twelve stones to repair Yahweh’s altar which had been torn down (1 King 18:30-37), the twelve beads of the chaplet of the Precious Blood represent the twelve stones of the new altar of salvation.

THE GREATEST DEVOTION OF ALL AGES:

All the sacrifice of the old is a preparation for the everlasting sacrifice. No sacrifice will we be greater than the sacrifice of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ.

PROMISES OF OUR LORD

Protection

Increases in Divine love

Deliverance

Mercy

Salvation.

PRAYING WITH THE SCRIPTURE

PRAYING WITH THE SCRIPTURE METHOD: Mk 12:1-12

Choose a page or a whole chapter of the scripture suitable for you at the moment.

Find a quiet place for the exercise.

Read the passage carefully.

Identify the characters of the passage.

PRAYING WITH THE SCRIPTURE

Choose a figure that best represents you.

Read the passage again slowly. Try and recall your past experience that

best suits the event of the scripture. Compose a short prayer on your

encounter with the scripture. NOTE: The prayer can take any form:

praise, thanks, petition, adoration and consolation.

SPIRITUAL EXERCISE MEDITATION ON “MY CHILDHOOD”:

Recall your childhood

Recall from the treasure of your memory all the beautiful and happy moments you enjoyed when you were a child.

Bring before your mind all the people that helped you to have a joyful childhood.

Recall also your dark days and your failures.

Thank God for all He has done for you since your childhood.

PRAY WITH: John 5:1-18

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