Tips on Mental Prayer

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Okay, I must admit, I really have a hard time with the idea of mental prayer. I sometimes find it to be a burden and hence I don’t regularly practice it and when I have tried to incorporate it into my prayer life, I end up dropping it the next day. I buy books on meditation and they end up just sitting on the shelf. Anyone out there have tips on how to easily incorporate mental prayer into one’s spiritual life and also perhaps the easiest straight forward way to perform this kind of prayer? Thanks and God Bless
 
CathMass said:
Okay, I must admit, I really have a hard time with the idea of mental prayer. I sometimes find it to be a burden and hence I don’t regularly practice it and when I have tried to incorporate it into my prayer life, I end up dropping it the next day. I buy books on meditation and they end up just sitting on the shelf. Anyone out there have tips on how to easily incorporate mental prayer into one’s spiritual life and also perhaps the easiest straight forward way to perform this kind of prayer? Thanks and God Bless
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CathMass,

Not everyone is called to mental prayer. Although we can all do it with practice, our personalities are not the all same. Some of us have to work harder for things than than others.

There are three kinds of prayer:
  1. Vocal
  2. Mental (Meditative)
  3. Contemplative
A person might find one of these easier than the other or they might find they are drawn to all three. Mental prayer can include religious study, and of course Vocal can include singing. Contemplative prayer has various levels that develops over time, but the simplest is just sitting quietly and thinking about God and how much you love Him.

Pick the one you are drawn to, and develop it. The other thing you have to do is ask God’s grace to pray… any kind of prayer. There is not one thing you can do in this world without His help. When you find things difficult, it is a grace, too. God is simply telling you to be humble and rely on Him.

The one thing that you must always do is pray, and even that you must ask for grace to do so. When things get harder, don’t stop. Change your strategy and try another style of prayer. Pray, pray, pray! Prayer is fuel for your soul, and the energy of your faith. God bless you!
 
Try meditating on the mysteries of the rosary. If that seems daunting, just try one decade a day. The Sorrowful Mysteries are the ones that are usually most recommended by the Saints to frequently meditate on so try those first.
If you are meditating on the agony in the garden, imagine yourself there with Jesus. What is He doing, what does He look like, what would you say to Him, etc. Here is a website that has St. Gemma’s form of meditation on the agony. stgemmagalgani.com/2009/01/holy-hour-practised-by-st-gemma-galgani.html
St. Teresa of Avila had a hard time meditating and so she would always start prayer with a book. Find a book or website like I just gave you that helps you and start with that.
 
CathMass said:
Okay, I must admit, I really have a hard time with the idea of mental prayer. I sometimes find it to be a burden and hence I don’t regularly practice it and when I have tried to incorporate it into my prayer life, I end up dropping it the next day. I buy books on meditation and they end up just sitting on the shelf. Anyone out there have tips on how to easily incorporate mental prayer into one’s spiritual life and also perhaps the easiest straight forward way to perform this kind of prayer? Thanks and God Bless
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You know, in *Cloud of Unknowing *the author says it only takes an “atom of time.” The smallest part of time. If you really want to pursue this, you can take more time, of course, but you can also just take a moment.

Find some moment when you are about to unlock the car in the morning or after work. Some time you are alone for a minute in your day and close your eyes and take a breath and let it out and let yourself just be blank with a yearning for God’s Light. Just for a few seconds. But do it every day.

I like to think sometimes of a shaft of sunlight through clouds that comes down around me. It feels so nice and warm. That’s God’s Light to me. Whatever works wherever you find a moment, for a few seconds. Just go there. Then go on with your day.

God controls Time, He’ll come to you because you long for Him. And you don’t have to make a big deal out of it.
 
Julia_Mae said:
You know, in *Cloud of Unknowing *the author says it only takes an “atom of time.” The smallest part of time. If you really want to pursue this, you can take more time, of course, but you can also just take a moment.

Find some moment when you are about to unlock the car in the morning or after work. Some time you are alone for a minute in your day and close your eyes and take a breath and let it out and let yourself just be blank with a yearning for God’s Light. Just for a few seconds. But do it every day.

I like to think sometimes of a shaft of sunlight through clouds that comes down around me. It feels so nice and warm. That’s God’s Light to me. Whatever works wherever you find a moment, for a few seconds. Just go there. Then go on with your day.

God controls Time, He’ll come to you because you long for Him. And you don’t have to make a big deal out of it.
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I think these are some good ideas. For more reference on the three expressions of prayer (vocal, meditative, and contemplative like another poster listed) see CCC 2700-2724.

Alan
 
God loves to hear our praise in song. For lent, I have returned to an old practice of playing certain contemplative praise hymns such as this:

Let Your glory fill this house,
and Your presence fill our hearts,
as Your praise fills our mouths,
Oh Lo-o-o-rd, My God!

(My heart prays for His glory to fill my own house (my being) as well as my actual home.)
The chord changes a bit higher, and the verse repeats again.
Then another verse repeat with a higher chord increase, as the dynamics of the song brings you into fuller and fuller worship.

This is different from hymns we sing in church that have several verses and many thoughts developing. It is purposely contemplative in its simplicity, and the heart responds almost immediately and enters into deep prayer.

I have a tape of several very contemplative praise hymns just like this one. As I play this daily in the morning, I find myself humming them during the day and becoming wonderfully recollected in joy with Our Lord. I believe this particular tape is out of circulation (1984), but if you can find one like this it will be a magnificent aid to recollection and contemplative prayer.
 
I did a search on this song with You-tube, and I found a decent recording. It does not ascend into chord changes, which was done 3 times on my version, nor is the accompaniment as good, but it will at least give you an idea of the contemplative nature of the song. youtube.com/watch?v=9Bilh6sP9iE
 
St. Augustine–on praying without ceasing
From a discourse on the Psalms by Saint Augustine, bishop
(In ps. 37, 13-14: CCL 38 391-392)

The desire of your heart constitutes your prayer

In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. There is a hidden anguish which is inaudible to men. Yet when a man’s heart is so taken up with some particular concern that the hurt inside finds vocal expression, one looks for the reason. And one will say to oneself: perhaps this is what causes his anguish, or perhaps such and such had happened to him. But who can be certain of the cause except God, who hears and sees his anguish? Therefore the psalmist says: In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. For if men hear at all, they usually hear only bodily groaning and know nothing of the anguish of the heart from which it issues.

Who then knows the cause of man’s groaning? All my desire is before you. No, it is not open before other men, for they cannot understand the heart; but before you is all my desire. If your desire lies open to him who is your Father and who sees in secret, he will answer you.

For the desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer. The Apostle Paul had a purpose in saying: Pray without ceasing. Are we then ceaselessly to bend our knees, to lie prostrate, or to lift up our hands? Is this what is meant in saying: Pray without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time.

Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God’s Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless. Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire.

The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent? Those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold.

The chilling of love means that the heart is silent; while burning love is the outcry of the heart. If your love is without ceasing, you are crying out always; if you always cry out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.

And all my desire is before you. What if the desire of our heart is before him, but not our groaning? But how is that possible, since the groaning is the voice of our desire? And therefore it is said: My groaning is not concealed from you. It may be concealed from men, but it is not concealed from you. Sometimes God’s servant seems to be saying in his humility: My anguish is not concealed from you. At other times he seems to be laughing. Does that mean that the desire of his heart has died within him? If the desire is there, then the groaning is there as well. Even if men fail to hear it, it never ceases to sound in the hearing of God.

Peace
 
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