I was delighted that we had a very good turnout for our third and final talk from the Friars of the Renewal this evening. The parish hall was almost full with parents from our First Holy Communion group and other parishioners. Once again I was very pleased to see many of the young people from our Confirmation programme. Fr Raphaël gave an excellent talk on 'Prayer'.
He spoke about Judaeo-Christian prayer and quoted examples from the Gospels of Jesus' own prayer to his Father; mentioning the way that we look back in memory when we pray in thanksgiving and also look forward in supplication in our prayers for the future.
In the second half of his talk, Fr Raphaël spoke at some length about five methods of prayer that we might use ourselves:
Praying the Rosary
Lectio Divina
The Jesus Prayer
Silent Meditation
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
One of the questions at the end of the evening referred to the distractions that beset us all at some time or another when we are trying to prayer.
Fr Raphaël reminded us that even the some of the great saints like St Thérèse of Lisieux were plagued by distractions and suggested that we try and turn those distractions into prayer.
Although this was the last talk in the series, we look forward to welcoming the Friars back to St Ann's some time next year when we hope they will visit us again.
4 comments:
A question I should have asked that evening - I was never taught to pray the Rosary. It was not something that was ever mentioned as a form of prayer at home or practised at school (St Philomena's). Therefore I shy away from doing the Rosary and find the concept of praying whilst thinking in depth about one of the Mysteries hard to grasp. Why as a cradle Catholic, if the Rosary is such a big part of our prayer life, was I not aware of it as a child?
Also, Father, would you be kind enough to tell me the words to the Jesus prayer as I found it difficult to understand the other night. Think I have memorised them but just want to be sure.
Thank you Jane for your comment.
What a pity that this was not a part of your childhood, at home and in school. I cannot remember an evening at home when we didn't kneel down to say the Rosary.
There are several forms of the Jesus Prayer. Something along the lines of ' Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God; have mercy on me, a sinner.'
What is important is to set aside a time for you and God to be alone together.
Jane, I was interested to read your comment about praying the Rosary.
I was received into the Catholic Church as an adult so for different reasons was not used to praying the Rosary as a child.
I've found that coming along to pray on a Sunday afternoon in the parish has been a great help and over the years I've come to love this beautiful devotion finding it a very helpful aid to prayer.
I have some materials - blessed Rosary Cards and Rosaries available if you would like them free of charge for any member of the parish.
I am happy to teach any parishioner to pray the Rosary.
We are teaching the children of the First Holy Commmunion group at St. Ann's to pray the Rosary and the children a very capable of praying a decade each time we meet for the programme.
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