Contemplative prayer: programs for teaching the young?

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Since everyone is called to sanctity, and according to Mother Teresa and many saints, “holiness is impossible without mental prayer”, and we are told that young people can learn mental prayer (St. Therese learned it when she was 11), are there programs for teaching contemplative prayer or mental prayer to elementary school children?

Some references to what I said above:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_prayer
catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105
friarsminor.org/children/prayer.html

Am interested in books, textbooks, or links which can show programs on teaching mental or contemplative prayer.

Thanks!
 
RaulN said:
Since everyone is called to sanctity, and according to Mother Teresa and many saints, “holiness is impossible without mental prayer”, and we are told that young people can learn mental prayer (St. Therese learned it when she was 11), are there programs for teaching contemplative prayer or mental prayer to elementary school children?

Some references to what I said above:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_prayer
catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=105
friarsminor.org/children/prayer.html

Am interested in books, textbooks, or links which can show programs on teaching mental or contemplative prayer.

Thanks!
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In reference to contemplative prayer: through my reading of some of Rev Thomas Dubay’s books, such as Fire Within, the best way is to teach about Gospel values: read the scriptures and teach children to follow the example of Christ faithfully in their daily lives. I don’t know of links, but I want to say that Fr. Thomas Dubay mentions that contemplative prayer is** not **like Eastern meditation/contemplation where *you manipulate *“the Divine” . Christian contemplation is a *loving communion *with God and is an infused gift of God ( i.e., FREELY given by God—not acheived), to be hoped for only after faithfully following Jesus in your actions.
So there are not any techniques that can acheive it—there is centering prayer, but he does not consider this to be Christian contemplation.

This said, I hope others can help you with the mental prayer part and give you links—I just wanted to give my two cents about avoiding teaching tecniques for contemplative prayer (As a teacher, myself, I would teach them ABOUT it, that it exists, but they must be “very good” and follow Jesus faithfully, etc., and just maybe God will “visit” them in this way—I taught my OWN children this. hey—it hasn’t happened to me, but if my kids can have this Loving Embrace, they should know of it and its possibility in their lives:)
 
true contemplation cannot be taught, if by that you mean infused contemplation, a gift received by some mystics. It is a gift that can be received by all, but it is for God to give, not for us to demand. mental prayer, that is silent meditation on the gospels or other matter can be encouraged, and the manner of preparation for mental prayer can be taught, ways to set the stage, but the prayer itself cannot be taught.

One of the best ways with children is the Ignatian method of meditation with the gospels. It works very well by itself with the catechist setting the stage, or aided by various lectionary-based resources for children. that is a meditation which begins with careful reading of the story or passage, then mentally putting oneself into the scene by imagination.

Take the story of Jesus healing the little girl, and imagine the scene in the house after the child has been raised. Who are you in this scene? are you the little girl, one of her parents or relatives, one of the apostles? how do you feel, what do you see, what do you hear, what do you say, what do you do?

the trouble with trying to “teach” this prayer is usually setting. Children, and the rest of us, have to learn silence and recollection first. In Therese’s day children were more disciplined and expected to sit still, to be mindful of posture, speech and deportment at all times, prayer time or other quiet time was built into their day, which was usually very structured and ordered.

Todays children (and adults) are not in such an ordered environment, and spend most of their lives surrounded by noise, and add to the noise artificially through the media. The first preparation for mental prayer is fostering listening skills, interior silence, simply learning to sit still. In my experience that is hard enough in the average RE classroom. It often works better for any prayer experience to move to a “sacred space” if not the church or chapel, to set aside a prayer corner in the classroom. Any catechist who can foster a climate of silence, listening and recollection has begun introduction to mental prayer, and done it very well.
 
RaulN,
I think that for elementary school age children, teaching them contemplative prayer may be too advanced for them. I think the best you can hope for is to teach them to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary, or on scripture, but being they’re just learning to say the prayers and learning about scripture, getting them to meditate on such things might be asking for too much.

Of course there are exceptions, like St. Theresa, but when you come across such exceptions, you find that they’re teaching you. 🙂

Jim
 
Here is a good place to look… btw… the picture of the 2 little girls is the perfect postcard to Jesus. Is it not ?
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   [mertonsmountain.com/](http://www.mertonsmountain.com/)
The nun’s taught us the omnipresence of God in our first year of grade school. We started by sitting to one side to leave a place on our chairs for our guardian angel. Then we were taught that God is everywhere and sees everything…and that He is especially in each of us…so at 6 years old we developped a friendship with our guardian angels and an awareness that God is in each of us and that we should be nice to Him and to each other. The nuns gave us a good start I think…
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  JMJ,

     Ricardo
 
This is my second year teaching 6th grade CCD (curriculum = Old Testament). One of my main goals for the year is to teach the children to PRAY with Scripture, not just read it.

I am introducing the children to the lectio divina method. Early in the year, I show them the steps (read, think, pray, contemplate), and several times during the year we “practice” on various short Scripture passages, sometimes related to the liturgical season or the Bible story we are studying.

It’s not a perfect situation; it’s difficult to achieve quiet and recollection with a large group of sixth graders. But I never knew until I was about 40 years old that mental prayer existed, so I want them to at least have some exposure to it. Some Catholics go through life never getting beyond reciting vocal prayers.

I don’t know whether it will have any long-term impact; I hope so. At least I tried.

Several years ago a young priest (one of the Fathers of Mercy) assigned to our parish gave a schoolday homily at Mass to a group of Catholic school children in which he basically taught them the basics of meditation in just a few minutes. It was superb!

No child should go through Catholic education (Catholic school or CCD) without learning to pray.
 
PhilotheaZ said:
Several years ago a young priest (one of the Fathers of Mercy) assigned to our parish gave a schoolday homily at Mass to a group of Catholic school children in which he basically taught them the basics of meditation in just a few minutes. It was superb!

No child should go through Catholic education (Catholic school or CCD) without learning to pray.
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This is my second year of teaching 7th grade. Part of my next week’s lesson plan is to do the Scriptual Rosary with the class.
I plan to teach them the meditation of each mystery. Currently my plan to to do the luminary, the public ministry of Jesus.

Could you post the basics of meditation in just a few minutes for children as you mentioned above, if you have the information handy?

Thanks.
 
InLight247 said:
Could you post the basics of meditation in just a few minutes for children as you mentioned above, if you have the information handy?
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I’ll be doing the Scriptural Rosary (or part of it) with my kids next week, too!

For lectio divina, I printed Bible bookmarks for each of the children with the following text (and a picture of Saint Benedict):

Lectio Divina
(“Divine reading”)

Prayer is a two-way conversation: God speaks to us, and we respond to Him. God speaks to us through Scripture — like letters from the Holy Spirit! Lectio divina is a simple way to pray with Scripture. Saint Benedict taught his monks to pray in this way 1500 years ago, and it is still a wonderful way to pray today.

Getting ready: Set aside a few minutes, find a quiet, comfortable place, choose a short Scripture passage, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

There are four stages to lectio divina:
  • “Lectio” — reading. Read the passage. Re-read it slowly, pausing from time to time. Notice any phrases that appeal to you or attract your attention.
  • “Meditatio” — meditation. Mull over the passage. The words that caught your attention may contain God’s special message for you. Spend extra time thinking about their meaning. What is God saying to your heart?
  • “Oratio” — prayer. Respond to God’s word in silent prayer. What do you want to say back to God? The passage you just read may inspire you to thank Him, praise Him, tell Him you are sorry, ask Him for something you need, make a resolution …
  • “Contemplatio” — contemplation. Just rest in the presence of God for a few minutes. No words are needed. Just love Him, and let Him love you!
 
I don’t have a text book, I can’t send you to a link to some learned person.

Foremostly children need good examples around them.

I have simply taught my six year old daughter to first of all when she was young (age 2/3 years) to pray vocally ( God bless Mummy, God Bless Grandma etc, Hail Mary, Our Father, Glory Be, Angel of God my Guardian Dear etc), this is the beginning. Then I have taught her to speak to Jesus in her mind, to stop using spoken words all the time and just use them some of the time. Especially at night I ask her to close her eyes and imagine Jesus very close by her and to think of Him and what He looks like, what He is doing (perhaps remebering a bible story she knows) and to tell Him whatever is on her mind, to talk to Him in her own thoughts , in her own way, in her own words all about herself and to talk with Him as her best friend

After a time I asked her to just ‘be’ with Jesus, to imagine Jesus with her and her with Him and to say nothing, not in her mind, not with her mouth, but to just let the love in her heart flow to Jesus and let His love flow to her. I asked her to concentrate her mind on this ‘swap’ of love between her and God.

Moreover I have taught her to be good to let her think about herself and to think about others too. I have taught her to think about the Living Prayer of her life, trying to be good in everything she thinks, does and says to offer to Jesus with love and have told her Jesus is with her always, all of the time without exception and He loves her very much, more than Mummy does; that’s how ‘big’ His love is.

It isn’t complex, children do it naturally I find, needing little guidance.

We, who think we know so much, find it such a complex thing, but little ones they find it so simplistic because they are simply open and offer themselves so simply before God and give and receive freely. And because the little ones have done no evil nor any great evil nor have they done any great good, but they are simply here in Jesus amongst us, they are simply His and He is theirs and they expect nothing and receive everything from our Lord Jesus and they are not closed to Him but appraoch Him freely and so He approaches them freely unhindered by the ‘self’.

The little children belong to Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them, they need only a little guidance to be drawn very near by Him.

In the Living Prayer of my life
 
PhilotheaZ said:
I’ll be doing the Scriptural Rosary (or part of it) with my kids next week, too!

For lectio divina, I printed Bible bookmarks for each of the children with the following text (and a picture of Saint Benedict):

Lectio Divina
(“Divine reading”)

Prayer is a two-way conversation: God speaks to us, and we respond to Him. God speaks to us through Scripture — like letters from the Holy Spirit! Lectio divina is a simple way to pray with Scripture. Saint Benedict taught his monks to pray in this way 1500 years ago, and it is still a wonderful way to pray today.

Getting ready: Set aside a few minutes, find a quiet, comfortable place, choose a short Scripture passage, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you.

There are four stages to lectio divina:
  • “Lectio” — reading. Read the passage. Re-read it slowly, pausing from time to time. Notice any phrases that appeal to you or attract your attention.
  • “Meditatio” — meditation. Mull over the passage. The words that caught your attention may contain God’s special message for you. Spend extra time thinking about their meaning. What is God saying to your heart?
  • “Oratio” — prayer. Respond to God’s word in silent prayer. What do you want to say back to God? The passage you just read may inspire you to thank Him, praise Him, tell Him you are sorry, ask Him for something you need, make a resolution …
  • “Contemplatio” — contemplation. Just rest in the presence of God for a few minutes. No words are needed. Just love Him, and let Him love you!
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Thanks for the good information. Are you printing all the above on a bookmark? How do they fit on a narrow paper?
 
Blessedstar:

I like the gradual steps you guide your daughter through.
That is very precious. I may borrow your ideas, though my students are thirteen.
 
Thank you so much for all these ideas! It’s wonderful to see how prayer is simple for children and is most natural for them to learn, even mental prayer.

How I wish many more can learn this. I believe Mary taught our Lord to pray, and our Lord taught his disciples to pray. And he said the Kingdom of God belongs to the children. Benedict XVI recently said that childhood is the most important stage in a man’s life, especially in learning the Christian life.

I’ll await other reactions… 🙂
 
RaulN said:
Thank you so much for all these ideas! It’s wonderful to see how prayer is simple for children and is most natural for them to learn, even mental prayer.

How I wish many more can learn this. I believe Mary taught our Lord to pray, and our Lord taught his disciples to pray. And he said the Kingdom of God belongs to the children. Benedict XVI recently said that childhood is the most important stage in a man’s life, especially in learning the Christian life.

I’ll await other reactions… 🙂
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IMHO, I beleive that children are more likely to enjoy the Loving embraces of God that is only a gift… They are innocent and not yet hardened by the trials of life, so they are more apt to be trusting of the Lord. I have had *very little * real experience with contemplation in my adult years (other than reading about it) . Life as an adult for me is a constant struggle with bringing my will in union with God due to different set-backs—But just because I likely won’t have this in MY life, I will not assume that a child couldn’t be so generous…so, I do tell my kids that contemplation exists, and that it is a call to being generous with God and imitating Christ. But it is up to God, the Giver.
 
I worked with young cancer patients and I believe that children are quite capable of sainthood and are equally capable of contemplative prayer when God chooses that form of prayer for them… with God anything is possible.

It is a truly humbling experience to witness the acceptance and giving that some children have when confronted with a fatal disease. I wish the Church would beatify more young souls: many are such fine examples of Christian faith and love.

JMJ,
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  Ricardo
PS. Please pray for my nephew Brian who left us at the age of 12 (due to cancer). In addition to encouraging the other children going through Chemo… he would tell us ‘’ Its allright’’ when he detected our sadness.
 
Ricardothere said:
PS. Please pray for my nephew Brian who left us at the age of 12 (due to cancer). In addition to encouraging the other children going through Chemo… he would tell us ‘’ Its allright’’ when he detected our sadness.
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I am sorry to hear about your nephew Brian.
I will keep Brian and your family in my prayers.
 
I think Brian’s example shows how prayerful he is. God gives his gift of prayer and love to everyone who is disposed to it, and who tries his best to love God in return. Thanks so much for sharing. Will indeed pray for Brian.
 
RaulN said:
God gives his gift of prayer and love to everyone who is disposed to it, and who tries his best to love God in return. … Will indeed pray for Brian.
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Thank you RaulN and thank you also for praying for our departed.
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JMJ,
Ricardo
 
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