How to pray?

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I think that my whole life I have been searching how to pray and it is still unclear. It just does not work to say "Lord please I need this…"or even variation of not my will but yours will be done. God seems not to listen and anyway he already knows but still seems not to listen. When there is a hardship God will let me go through it if I pray or not. In short - praying does not in any way help me to deal with blows that I am experiencing. Infertility, my husband has bipolar disorder, I live in a foreign country thousands of miles from my parents and friends of old, I have a demanding job that I don;t like but I am stuck there. Of course I am experiencing many good things in life too. My marriage though difficult is full of love listing just one of these things. I just don;t know how to pray- if God is a personal God why is life so confusing and he does not let us see the light ahead? Why does he let us struggle so much? Anybody has an answer? My own Dad would not let me go through so many difficult things without letting me know that he is with me…
 
I think that it is good to praise God in prayer but I don;t have a habit/organized way to do this. I praise God when I feel happy but shouldn’t we always praise God? Could you recommend a prayer book of praises? Thank you
 
A Cardinal’s Advice …

I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and
happiness. Every day for five minutes control your
imagination, close your eyes to the things of sense, and
your ears to the noise of the world, in order to enter into
yourself. There in the sanctuary of your baptized spirit—
say to Him:

“O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You.
Enlighten, guide and console me. Tell me what I must
do; give me your orders. I promise to subject myself to
all that You desire of me and to accept all that You
permit to happen to me. Let me only know your will.”

If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely,
and full of consolation even in the midst of trials. Grace
will be proportioned to the trial, giving you strength to
carry it, and you will arrive at the gate of paradise laden
with merit. This submission to the Holy Spirit is the
secret of sanctity.
- Cardinal Mercier
 
EWTN is currently showing Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s retreat on the 14 rules of St. Ignatius of Loyola. I think his retreat would help you and your husband’s spirituality.

ewtn.com/series/shows/living-the-discerning-life/livingdiscerningepisodes.asp

Fr. Gallagher’s books are available online:

amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=father+timothy+gallagher&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=7249787408&ref=pd_sl_k17ot7dcr_b

He was interviewed by Doug Keck and that is available here:

youtube.com/watch?v=pE-AGnkBzWk
 
The Divine Praises …

Blessed be God.
Blessed be his Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be his most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the
Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.

May the Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.
 
The Magnificat …

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Amen.
 
Seven_Spirits said:
The Divine Praises …

Blessed be God.
Blessed be his Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be his most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the
Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.

May the Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, even to the end of time. Amen.
Click to expand...
Seven_Spirits said:
The Magnificat …

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
Amen.
Click to expand...
Amen. 🙂
 
Thank you - these are beautiful prayers. I decided to try to start to pray the liturgy of the hours.
I was lucky to participate in the 30 week retreat of Ignatian exercises last year in my parish. However this meditational prayer was designed to take about an hour every day. I am looking at something easier this time.
Thanks for the different links.
 
I learned a version of the Prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola as a boy-scout. I prayed it every day for many years. It strongly affected the formation of my adult personality.

Dearest Jesus,
Teach me to be Generous
Teach me to love You and serve You as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labour and to look for no reward
Save that of knowing that I do your Holy Will
Amen.

It takes the first and second Commandments of Jesus, and asks Jesus to burn them into your Heart.

You say you have been praying the LOTH. I love this prayer. I try to say at least one hour each day. - especialy Morning, Evening or Night prayer. - I try to pray with my Wife.

There were a number of saints starting with Saint Paul who discuss the idea of the sufferings we bear can be a Gift from God, and an answer to our prayers.
The Idea that as Christians we will have an easy life with all of our sufferings washed away by our baptism is simply untrue - while there are some protestant fundamentalists who teach this it is simply not borne out. Jesus himself tells us to “Pick up your cross [daily] and follow me”

How to pray:
A: Adoration: God you are amazing. I love, Worship and Adore you.
C: Contrition: I have sinned against you, and those around me, a I am truly sorry.
T: Thanksgiving: Thank You for all the blessings you have bestowed on me
S: Supplication: Please Lord help those around me. Please Help me. May you will be done.

You will notice that all Liturgies especially the mass follows this formula.

Within our prayers to the father there are also 1 other main form of prayer to consider: Contemplation
This is meditative prayer. a good examples are the Lectio Divina, the Rosary or the silent pauses you are supposed to give yourself after each psalm and reading in the LOTH to contemplate the passage of scripture and it’s antiphon which you have just read.

In the first list above: the mnemonic ACTS puts Supplication last. this is an important factor to remember in our prayers with God.

God is not Santa Clause there for no other purpose but to bring us the trinkets we deign to ask for - if we’re not on the naughty list.
God created us to Love Him. The greatest gifts he can give us he already has:
Our existence
Our ability to know Him
Our Salvation

the 2nd and third of these requires that we reach out and accept the gift.

God Bless You.
 
prayer is nothing more than talking with our Lord the same as if you were talking to your earthly father. It doesnt have to be of any particular format or anything. Just remember that God answers in His time and the things that happen to us in life are so that we become more dependent on Him above. To may people get caught up in formality and lose it. Start off with say Abba father, which is like calling God daddy!👍
 
andy60 said:
prayer is nothing more than talking with our Lord the same as if you were talking to your earthly father. It doesnt have to be of any particular format or anything. Just remember that God answers in His time and the things that happen to us in life are so that we become more dependent on Him above. To may people get caught up in formality and lose it. Start off with say Abba father, which is like calling God daddy!👍
Click to expand...
This is great Andy!! 👍

When I fist came back to the Chruch and was having a really hard time praying,
a very wise priest gave me this advice-
“Pray as you can, not as you can’t. What matters is that you pray!”
Click to expand...
 
This is so nicely said. Thanks to all for wonderful responses! Is there a way how to save your wisdom? I mean how can I easily find my own posts after some days? I like to read the prayers you wrote down for me. I will rather copy and save them elsewhere.Thanks
 
Oh I figured it out- I do to search and my old posts. I will look at this one post for a while.
 
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