“God provides for us in

surprising ways each day, which

gives us HOPE.

Our life of prayer is what shines

the light on this hope each day. It is how
God talk to us .”
 WHAT IS PRAYER?
Prayer is God’s invitation to dedicate our time
and being to a fuller appreciation of the divine
so that our vision broadens and
our hearts expand through Love.
It is a lifelong rhythm of
listening and responding
to God’s call for conversion of heart -
personally and communally.
 Prayer lies at the
very heart of life.
It holds everything together,
it sustains every other activity.
It is at the same time
root and fruit,
foundation and fulfillment.
Prayer can never be set
apart from the rest of life;
IT IS LIFE ITSELF.
 A practical and adaptable framework to an
integrated life of prayer is to center time and being in
God’s presence – in prayer, work and community living.
 We respond, but first we listen. “Listen carefully to the
teacher’s instructions, and attend to them with the ear
of your heart.” (St. Benedict). We are to listen like
children within our hearts to what the Gospel has to
teach us.
 First of all, you must pray to God most earnestly to bring
every good work to perfection.
 We pray, and then we work, and we pray again – all
for the love of Christ.
 Prayer
is an intentional offering of time
and being
for no other purpose than
praise of God.
This intentional offering is
anchored by three traditions:
liturgical prayer (the Eucharist
and Divine Office, or Work of
God),
lectio divina (prayerful reading
of Scripture and other spiritual
texts) and work.
 Invitation To Pray
Prayer is a pure gift that cannot be truly
appreciated unless it is truly received.
Receiving this gift doesn’t require anything
more than a heart receptive to the Word of
God. We are called to open the door and
invite the gift that invites us to deeper
union with God.
Prayer is a time to rest in God
as a child rests in its mother’s
arms. It is a time apart to settle
into hearing God’s Word.

“Speaking and teaching

are the master’s task.
The disciple is to be
silent and listen.”
 Before any business or
conversation for the day is
conducted,
one must be immersed in
God’s Word so that it may
shape his prayer, work and
community life. He is to
listen to God – in the
spoken Word and in the
depths of his heart.
 DEDICATION TO PRAY
Nothing is to be
preferred to the Work of
God” (St. Benedict)
• Prayer is the first and last work of the
day, and what guides, sustains and
completes all other works.
• This mean consecrating – or setting
apart – a specific time and place to
pray, as well as offering short
moments of prayer throughout the
day.
The life of
prayer must be
intentional and
consistent, a complete
dedication of time and
being with God.
The key is to establish a
pattern and abide by it,
resisting to make
revisions to suit
momentary preferences.
When we give God our time and being before
all else, we make good use of the gift of prayer,
no matter how unappealing, difficult, or
pointless it may seem at the moment.

“Until you are convinced that

prayer is the best use of your
time, you will not find the time
for prayer.”
 APPRECIATION
As St. Paul says, the AND
Spirit (Rm. 8: 2-27). VISION
“comes to
the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how
to pray as we ought… The one who searches the
hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because it intercedes for the holy ones according
to God’s will”
Prayer permeates the day. As we digest God’s
Word in prayer, it begins to nourish and reshape us,
drawing connections with the events and
relationships in our lives. Then, guided by the Spirit
we become the Word in action.
 Time and being with God in regular
personal and liturgical prayer gradually
deepens our appreciation of the divine
presence at all times and in everything
and everyone. It sharpens our vision in this
journey toward our heavenly home and
offers us moments of grace along the
way.
Prayer is not a relaxation technique, a
personal “wish list,” or a manufactured
experience of bliss. It is
being with God who is present to one and all –
not so we can get things we want, but so
we are conformed to Christ.
 EXPANSION
We must have a
Gospel-centered life of prayer
that is attentive to all the ways
God is present to us, so that we
become more fully present
in every aspect of our lives.
• Prayer’s aim is the “widening of
one’s vision such that one begins to
see as God sees, to love all that
God has created as God has, to
view life’s situations as God does.”
(Sr. Mary Forman)
• The hunger for God is what
nourishes all of life. It invites us to
pray because life depends on it.
 When we respond to the invitation,
and faithfully dedicate
our time and being to God,
“we shall run on the path of
God’s commands, our hearts
expanded with the
inexpressible delight of
love".
 The highest good is
prayer and
conversation with
God, because it means that we
are in God’s company and in union
with Him. When light enters our
bodily eyes, our eyesight is
sharpened; when a soul is intent on
God, God’s inextinguishable light
shines into it and makes it bright
and clear. I am talking, of course,
of prayer that comes from the
The
End