Mental Prayer / Meditation

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DavidJoseph

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A question for those who practice regular mental prayer –

What do you use for meditation material? The day’s Mass readings, perhaps? Or a meditation book?

Also, does anybody here ever use “Divine Intimacy” for meditation?
 
Hi–I use the method of St. John of the Cross, but no specific “material” except love and desire for God.–nicolo
 
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DavidJoseph:
Also, does anybody here ever use “Divine Intimacy” for meditation?
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Are you talking about Fr. Gabriel’s book? If so, his meditations are great and provide wonderful insight into Carmelite spirituality. He was truly a wonderful spiritual teacher.

The hardest part for me about the book is keeping track of what day we’re on . . . it’s an old book and the calendar he uses is different than what the Church uses today.

Dave.
 
Nice to have a Carmelite topic again.

Sometimes I read St John’s Gospel.

Sometimes I take St Teresa of Avila’s advice:

It helped me also to look at fields, or water, or flowers. In these things I found a remembrance of the Creator (Life, 9.6).

And sometimes I just gaze at a crucifix and remember what it means.
 
I love reading, thinking and praying with “Magnificat” monthly its got some much stuff in it.
 
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nico1089:
Hi–I use the method of St. John of the Cross, but no specific “material” except love and desire for God.–nicolo
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I’m interested in this meathod…Can you elaborate on the steps taken to begin this and how to do it?? :o
 
for lectio divina I use the Gospel for the Sunday cycle we are in, so I am finishing Matthew’s Gospel and will begin Mark shortly. Each time I do it I use a different commentary. The first time I used Fr. Raymond Brown’s meditations for each gospel (NAB translation), the next time I used the Ignatius Press one volume study guides (RSV=CE), and this time the Emmaus Press devotional commentaries from Word Among Us. Tried the DR-C but can’t get into the language.

My method is to read the selection and the study notes, look up anything that needs more explanation in a commentary or reference work earlier in the day, before I actually sit down for the lectio, which I like to do about an hour before bedtime.

When I am travelling I just take the Magnificat and use the daily readings, and the little devotional for each day. I like to travel light.
I
 
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scapularkid8:
I’m interested in this meathod…Can you elaborate on the steps taken to begin this and how to do it?? :o
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Hi–It is not something easily explained. I would suggest reading Ascent of Mt. Carmel (St. John of the Cross) to begin what will be a life-long endeavor. You must be willing to “deny yourself, take up the cross and follow Christ”.–nicolo
 
This may not be exactly the question you are asking but because it might help I’ll share.
Formost be interested in the topic. Be sincere and keep it simple.
One day on a long drive I asked God to send me a hitch hiker to share some conversation instead into my mind came the phrase “talk your ear off”. I began to ponder where that phrase might have come from and what exactly does it mean. My musings lead me to the Garden of Gethsemane and Saint Peter using the sword to cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant. This lead to contemplating on how the disciples really did not know Jesus until the First Pentecost. Then to ‘talking the talk’ but harder to ‘walk the talk.’ In this case these men of God had cast out demons and cured people yet did not truly know His ways. They could ‘talk the walk’ but Peter’s actions ‘talked the ear off’. I’ll leave off here as I think you can get the picture of the thought process I used. I was amazed later that day to discover in mass that this was the day of the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
Hope this helps.
 
I say a mental rosary every night when I lay down. I’m usually unable to finish it (5 decades) because I fall asleep, but its definitely a peaceful way to end my day.
 
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