Puzzled -- how to use prayer booklets, learning to pray

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A trusted friend recommended I get the Pieta prayer booklet (it’s a blue booklet)–he said it had a lot of good prayers in it,so I picked it up today at a parish bookstore. I also got a booklet of healing prayers. And another friend gave me a novena booklet for the miraculous medal.

Unfortunately I’m really unclear about how to USE the prayer booklets I bought today, as well as the novena booklet.

These booklet may as well be written in Chinese. You see, prayer was never something I did at all (since I didn’t believe in God) until a few years ago when I “came to Jesus”. So I am feeling kind of clueless as to how to use these booklets. It seems that they are written for people who ALREADY know how to use them.

But for me, coming from a secular Jewish background, I am finding that I have trouble getting oriented to these booklets.

Help?
 
+Pray:gopray2:er is essentially the heart of one’s soul “talking” to its God . . . on the other hand . . . meditation is taught in Sacred :bible1: Scripture and by Holy Mother Church as essentially being the heart of one’s soul “listening” to its God . . . the ultimate goal of these actions of the soul being that at the center . . . of the deep interior quiet within the heart of the soul . . . the soul enters into . . . *constant holy conversation and communion with its God *. . .

Coming from a Jewish background . . . perhaps the book of **Psalms in the Holy :bible1: Bible would be a wonderful prayerbook for you . . . as it is for multitudes of us in the Church . . . and taking just a couple of verses of Sacred Scripture from the ** Bible to pray is the most normal thing in the world . . . for example . . .

. . . :gopray2: . . .
O God,
come to my assistance;
O Lord,
make haste to help me.- Psalm 69:2
This exquisite “little portion” of the **Psalm **is used each day by all the clergy and religious and many of us just “ordinary folk” as we begin our prayers . . . and is prayed **all on its own **all during the day at different hours . . . and such wonderful profound “little portions” to pray are available throughout the Psalms . . .

Lectio Divina (divine reading) is perhaps the clearest most well lit holy pathway for the soul to “listen” to its God . . . essentially it is encountering God in the reading of a literary level of holy writings in Christendom believed to be especially blessed and anointed of God . . . first order and always primary of which is God’s **Holy Word **. . . Sacred Scripture . . . and which group of writings can also include The Holy Rule of St. Benedict . . . The Catechism of the Catholic Church . . . writings of the Fathers of the Church, etc., . . . and as such . . . when prayer:gopray2:fully read the . . . **Holy Spirit **. . . Wonderful Counselor of Our God . . . is abundantly available to help regarding the reading and understanding of same . . .

The holy monk Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki , O.S.B. of the Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania here in the United States . . . recommends that we . . . *slow down radically *. . . when reflecting on inspired material . . . so as to . . . ***open up freely ***. . . to the treasury of insights contained therein . . . he goes on further to share with beautiful simplicity:

Lectio Divina (divine reading)
Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki , O.S.B. (Order of St. Benedict)

“It is the **monastic insight **that reading, if it be authentic, cannot be undertaken simply with the eyes and the mind. Rather it must involve the whole person: mind, heart, body and spirit. It is reading not so much for information as for formation, that is, for encounter with the living God in this moment in such a way that one’s heart ❤️ catches fire and one’s life is transformed … In St. Benedict’s day reading a sacred or spiritual text was practiced not so much for the sake of ‘information,’ but rather in order to be ‘formed’: that is, to be inwardly changed or shaped. …

Thus the aim of lectio divina (divine reading), i.e., pondering the material in a slow, prayerfulful way, is to dispose ourselves to welcome God’s ever-present grace and His efforts to conquer our hearts and transform us more and more into a holy people . . . ”
​
_________________________

. . . :coffeeread: . . .

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Part One: The Profession of Faith

Article 2 - THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE REVELATION

81 Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.

Article 3 - SACRED SCRIPTURE

104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as human word, “but as what it really is, the Word of God.”​
In the sacred books,
the Father who is in heaven
comes lovingly ❤️ to meet his children,
and talks with them.
_________________________
. . . all for Jesus+
. . . thank You Sweet Spirit of our Holy God+
. . . thank you Blessed Holy St. Benedict+
. . . thank you Holy Mother Church+​
 
Lifeisawesome said:
As a fellow “completed” Jew - welcome!!
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Thank you 🙂 If you are ever so inclined, I’d love to hear a little about how you went from being Jewish to Christian, and specifically why you wound up being Catholic instead of another kind of Christian. I find conversion stories of other Jews to be quite interesting, but most of the ones I’ve heard are from Jews who became “generic” Christians, and not from those who are in the RCC.
Lifeisawesome said:
One of the best places to start to learn to understand Christian prayer is with Father Thomas Dubay’s “Prayer Primer”
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I appreciate the recommendation. I’m jazzed to see that it comes from a web site dedicated to spiritual direction. SD is something from which I really think I could benefit. Ditto for the book–I will get it!
 
One of my favorite “beginner” books on Christian prayer (it’s really good for anyone) is Anthony Bloom’s small classic Beginning to Pray. Bloom was a Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, but his writings are appreciated by Christians of all kinds.

Romano Guardini’s The Art of Praying: The Principles and Methods of Christian Prayer is also a great book for beginners (and anyone else). Fr. Benedict Groeschel is among the many who recommends this book: “Long ago, Msgr. Guardini helped teach me how to pray. I still rely on his thought and I cannot recommend this book highly enough.” Fr. Guardini was also a big influence in the lives of Josef Pieper, Luigi Giussani, and Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI).

Don’t be intimidated by the big names; I can testify from personal experience that these really are great books for beginners. 🙂
 
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