The quote in our Family of Parishes Lenten Journal for today, Monday of the First Week of Lent, is: “It always helps to have a prayer in your back pocket.” (Actor Pierce Brosnan).
Prayer is something we can carry around with us and turn to when things are going well, and when they are not. For instance, when someone may ask you to pray for them or for a loved one, we can stop at that moment and say a prayer together. There are countless ways to pray. Journaling, the practice we are invited to enter into this Lent, is a powerful prayer form. To write down our thoughts and prayers, as well as the people we are praying for and what we are thankful for, and then see it in our own handwriting, is powerful. We invited us to go to that secret room deep within us where we encounter God’s presence.
In addition to journaling, here are a few ways of praying that will help us to carry prayer with us.
- PRAYING WITH THE BIBLE. Personalize Scripture by putting your name in it. “Mary, my peace I leave with you..Mary, do not let your heart be troubled.” (John 14:27).
- PRAYING THROUGH THE BIBLE. Lectio Divina is a way of praying over a Scripture passage. There are four steps: reading, meditating, praying, and contemplating
- PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD. This can be done at any time. It is simply calling to mind that God dwells within us through the Holy Spirit and the Son. This takes being intentional.
- HEARING GOD. Listening to God speaking to us through Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and our life circumstances.
- PRAYING WITH LAMENT: This is pouring our heart out to God, expressing our suffering, and even anger with God. Many of the Psalms are prayers of lament.