11.25.24 The Art of Prayer

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

St. Joseph man of prayer and the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. Thanks everybody for coming tonight. I'll speak for a little bit over an hour and then I'll have a chance to talk and take all your questions until we shut down the place. Tonight's topic is something that we could spend weeks on. Normally when I teach it, I teach it over about four hours and so we're not going to be able to get into that type of depth.

But my hope is that all of you who come tonight already practice the art of prayer. And so what I hope to do tonight is to expand your understanding of the church's idea of prayer and deepen it at the same time. First thing I want to talk about is the indispensable need of prayer. Prayer is the most important thing we do.

Our spiritual life is worth what our prayer is worth. If we wish to be a person of great depth, we have to be a person of prayer. It's not a thing of intelligence. It's not a thing of aptitude. It's not a thing of various skills that were required over the course of time. In the Christian life, we know that the most important stuff is what we receive from God. So we have to open ourselves up in my new job.

for the political mission societies. I'm building a chapel in our second office in Florida. And there's some inconvenience involved. There's some expense involved. But what I'm stressing is the most important thing we do for the missions is pray to the Harvest Master for his laborers as well as for all of those who are ripe and white to come on in. Cardinal Ratzberg once said, we can't earn disciples. We must receive them

from God for God. So the most important thing we do in that field is to pray. The most important thing you're going to do in your studies is not study as important as that is, but to pray that God open up your mind. The most important thing you're going to do in finding a future spouse, if you think you've got the location to marriage, is to pray for your future spouse. Even more than going out and asking for dates, for example, or saying yes when somebody asks,

Prayer is the fundamental thing we do. St. Jose Maria used to say with regard to anything we want to accomplish. First, most important thing is prayer. Second, is mortification or sacrifice. Pray in with our body. For example, fasting. And third, very much in the third is action.

And for us as Americans, we pretty much think it's 90% action. And then kind of as frosting, or as a little salad before we eat the main course, which is our activity, we'll pray.

We often juxtapose prayer to our action, thinking that our action is the most important stuff. So we might start off a lecture on prayer with a prayer. We might finish it with a prayer, but the real stuff is in between. It's not the prayer. We juxtapose prayer to our work rather than subordinate our work to prayer, to this relationship with the Lord. So the indispensable necessity of prayer.

Pope Benedict used to say that the greatest crisis facing the world is the crisis of secularism. And secularism means living as if God didn't exist. It's a practical atheism. Even if somebody wants to acknowledge that God theoretically exists, somebody who believes that God exists can sometimes live Monday through Saturday the same way everybody else lives. And that's driving God out of life.

The antidote to living as if God doesn't exist is to remind ourselves that God exists by always trying to live in communion with Him. Being trained how to pray may be the single most important thing we need to learn in life. We can't take it for granted. Once upon a time, the entire church prayed.

Everybody who was a Catholic kid, gone to Catholic school. They were taught by the religious sisters how to pray. They would often go to daily mass that have adoration, that pray the rosary together every October in May. They prayed when they came home again. The entire church was a school of prayer. And then we kind of lost it such that many people today think that prayer means saying in our Father Three Hail Mary's in a glory be before you go to bed. Prayer is so much more than that.

Why don't people pray? There are lots of reasons that people give in surveys and that people just state when you tell them, here's a quick list. Some people don't pray because they don't know how. They've never been taught. They don't know what to say or think. If you're in that circumstance, just go and say, Lord, if you're there, I don't know what I'm doing. Help me. And you're already praying well.

Some don't believe in God. We're in a God with whom we can converse. So that's why they don't pray. Some believe God already knows everything. And so what's the point of prayer? That shows that they've got a reductive notion of prayer. Prayer isn't expressing things of love for the Lord. It's not praising Him. It's not thanking Him. Just give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me.

And if that's all prayer is and God already knows, then why would you be asking? We'll have an answer to that question later. But sometimes a notion of what prayer is is productive. Some have tried to pray, but haven't seen to get anything out of it. So they basically throw in the towel. Others have tried to pray, but have been bored or dry or restless or distracted. And hence they think prayer is a frustrating waste of time.

Some don't think they have any needs that are beyond their own capacity to attain, so they don't need prayer. Others are afraid of admitting their desires, being honest about what they lack, or being vulnerable before God and themselves. They don't really want to be anything other than a mastery to universe, and prayer requires humility. Some are afraid what God might ask if they come into his presence.

You're afraid of being asked to change. They're afraid of being asked to become someone. They're not prepared to do. And so they withdraw. Some have asked God for something. It didn't receive it. And they became discouraged and began to question whether prayer works. You're afraid of being crushed again. Some don't think they have the time to pray or that they're always too tired to pray. Some simply don't get around to it.

There's a thing of prioritization and time management here. By the way, I'll get slides to everybody. You don't have to take it. It'll be uploaded. But you can take it if you wish. Some have been turned off by people who pray. These are the people who immediately have to pray rather than changing their own lives, try to change your lives. And so they don't want to become like that person who is uncharitable yet to praise.

something they have to be holy to pray and they don't think that they're holy. Others have learned how to pray with others and then their grandmother dies and so they've never really prayed on their own and they're a little lost and sad. That's one of the reasons why it's important to invite people to pray with us because a lot of the times what they would never do on their own, they will do with us.

Like someone out of shape who doesn't want to put in the hard work to start exercising, some may be afraid of the exertion beginning to pray may entail. It does require some perseverance. It does require some reparitization and some don't do it. So those are among the reasons why people have given why they don't pray. Let's get back to the necessity of prayer. Saint John Paul II at the beginning of the third Christian millennium wrote a pastoral plan for the third Christian millennium.

He said that everything the church does is meant to train us in holiness. And one of the most important parts of that training is to learn how to pray. Training in holiness calls for Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer. So to the extent that our life is genuinely Christian, it must be distinguished above all, not by our knowledge of sacred scripture,

not by our merely attending, for example, daily mass, not by our exercising the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, or plenty of other things which in themselves are very good. But a Christian life, a truly Christian life has to be distinguished above all by prayer. At your funeral,

After everybody reads the whole front section in the New York Times and all the Nobel Prizes and NFL MVPs, you have somehow won simultaneously. And after the crowd of 50,000 people process past your casket, the priest preaching your funeral should be able to get up and say, and above all,

beyond everything else that this person did. This person was a man. This person was a woman. This person was a priest of prayer and is able to describe it. That's what our Christian life is supposed to be distinguished above all by. Now that word art is not an accidental term. Prayer is an art. An art always involves two things. First, inspiration.

literally in breathing from above. We see that with the great sculptures and composers that there's always something that distinguishes them and they'll often speak about the inspiration they have, something from without them. And then it requires cooperation with that inspiration. It requires talent, it requires perseverance. And so prayer is not engineering.

Prayer is not about technique. This is what you do with your eyes. This is what you do with your hands. This is what you do with your knees, your body. This is the word you say or the phrase of a mantra. Prayer is an art that begins with God's inspiration with which we cooperate. And our life ought to be distinguished by our prayer. Because again, to repeat, our spiritual life, our Christian life is worth. What our prayer is worth.

John Paul II said, who was a man of prayer, I had the great joy to pray with him many times, not just in big public setting, but in his private chapel. One time there was literally to his right about as far as I am from Joel, and he audibly groaned his entire prayer. It reminded me of Romans 8 that sometimes our prayer is with inexpressible groaning.

And he was praying with inexpressible groanings. And he was clearly a mistake as he prayed. It was very, very deep. He said, prayer can't be taken for granted. We have to learn to pray. As it were, learning his art ever knew from the lips of the Divine Master himself, like the first disciples, Lord, teach us to pray. We've got to learn the art always. We're never done. God's always trying to teach us how to pray better.

who we have to go to Jesus and ask Him to teach us, just like the first disciples. He wants to teach us. He said it would be wrong to think that ordinary Christians can be content with a shallow prayer, unable to fill their whole life. You're not at Columbia because your biggest ambition is to be ordinary or mediocre. You want to be, if not great, at least really good.

And so nobody aspires to be ordinary. But it would be wrong to think that the average Christian is able to be content with a minimal prayer life, unable to fulfill his whole existence. Why not?

especially in the face of the many trials to which today's world subjects faith. They would not only be mediocre Christians because their prayer life is just average, but they would be Christians at risk. They'd run the insidious risk of seeing their faith progressively undermined. It would perhaps end up succumbing to the lure of substitutes, accepting alternative religious proposals and even indulging in far-fetched superstitions. You see this all the time. Kids who grow up in Catholic families.

and then leave the faith, drift away from the faith. Why? When you talk to them, and I have, as a high school chaplain and as a university chaplain, probably you have talked to many of your friends at the same time too, why they have stopped practicing the faith. One of the real reasons is because when they were doing the things of faith, they weren't encountering Jesus. They weren't praying.

So they were going to Mass. And Mass began to be a thing of stand sit, stand sit, stand kneel, stand kneel, stand walk, come back kneel, stand, genuflect, leave. Not knowing what we were doing. Not really encountering Jesus in His Word or in the Holy Eucharist. They go to confession many times, but never met Jesus there working through the priest. They read Sacred Scripture, don't recognize that God's speaking to them.

even when they pray, even when they go before Jesus and bless its acumen, they might steer for a little bit wondering what's going on. But it's not an encounter with a person, but a thing. And so they begin to say, hey, listen, I practiced the faith, but I was born. I practiced the faith, but I didn't get anything out of it. A lot of the times, the reason why they didn't get anything out of it,

was because they had never been helped to meet God in those activity. My time's wrapping up here. So eventually I may sort of open up and show you the cards. The most important thing I have done here at Columbia is actually celebrate Mass is if I believe it, which I do.

It's worth more than all the homilies I've ever preached combined. My hope is that people who come to mass with me will recognize at least that I am the craziest person in the world thinking that bread in my hands changes into the second person of the Blessed Trinity, or that I'm right in the hope that people would recognize that I'm not rifling through things, so that they might have a chance to say, maybe that really is God.

We need to do that throughout all the aspects of our faith, especially when we're teaching people how to pray. Otherwise, we're Christians at risk of wandering away and then finding what we're looking for somewhere else. Why do so many Catholics have to go, for example, to Protestant services, evangelical services, to find people on fire for the Word of God? We should be on greater fire for the Word of God.

Why do they have to go to praise and worship services? Sometimes even outside of the presence of adoration to try to endure God when God's right there in front of us, but we have to not just go through the motions in an average way. We need to ask God's help to be way above average as we do these activities. It's essentially said that education and prayer should become in some way a key point

He said of all pastoral planning, we could just simply say, if everything the church does, we need to have education and prayer as the key point. We need to be Jesus' teaching assistants in response to those who say, Lord, teach us to pray. Prayer develops. He says that conversation with Christ that makes us as intimate friends. Jesus wants us to be his friends.

We've got to spend time with friends. We've got to get to know friends. We've got to open ourselves up to friends. We've got to allow them to open themselves up to us. The ultimate purpose of prayer is not an exchange of thoughts or words. The ultimate purpose of prayer is an exchange of persons which God gives Himself to us and we give ourselves back. This is what Jesus means when He says abide in me and I in you.

St. John Paul II says this reciprocity of mutual abiding is the very substance and soul of the Christian light and the condition of everything that the church does. She just wants to live in us and have us live in Him. That's prayer. If we understand that definition, then we're not

thrown off if we go before the Lord and hear nothing for an hour or three or three years because He can still give Himself to us even if we can't process one solitary thought, hear one word, feel one consolation. We know He's still there and He's still loving us and He's still blessing us and He's coming to dwell within us. We can be thrown off when we don't recognize that prayer is an exchange of person.

And here comes the biggest money quote of everything he said about prayer. Learning this Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer, I'll explain that in a second, and living it fully above all in the mass, the source and the summit of the church's life, but also in personal experience is the secret of a truly vital Christianity. If we want our Christian life to be truly alive, to be flourishing on fire, then we have to learn the Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer.

which begs the question. What's the Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer? It's not just that we finish every prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you, Father, in the unity of Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. The future Pope Benedict made this clear once when he said that the Trinitarian shape of prayer means that God is an eternal trial lock.

three persons of the Blessed Trinity are constantly in a relationship of mutual self-giving and reception, that they are totally giving themselves over to each other, only holding back who they are, what it means to be Father, what it means to be Son, what it means to be the love between the Father and the Son. They totally give everything over into that conversation, that literally turning with each other, because God in the eternal trial log

He wants to bring us into that communion of persons. So how does that happen? First thing that happens is when the Son of God takes our humanity into the Trinity. This is what happened at the Incarnation. So the human race is now part somehow of that extraordinary three-way conversation. Who is God? How do you and I enter into that conversation?

we enter into a through baptism, which makes us part of Christ's mystical body that's now been brought into the Blessed Trinity. And where does that happen? That happens not in the storefront, that happens not by our praying in our hammock, in our backyard. That happens in the church, which is the source of all the sacramental life. It's where we're incorporated, where we become one body, one spirit of Christ.

So the Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer begins with who God is, what the meaning of the incarnation is, what the meaning of the whole sacramental system of the church is, what the meaning of the church itself is. And that's why we moved by the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, are able to cry out Abba Father, are able to cry out Jesus' reward. That's the content.

of the Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer. So that's about the deepest thing I'm going to tell you tonight, and it is very deep. But learning the Trinitarian shape of Christian prayer, entering into gospel life by our prayer, is the secret of a truly vital Christianity. For this to take place, we have to prioritize prayer, showing you a picture of my predecessor as the

National director of the Society of the Propagation of Faith. Fulton J. Sheen was once asked by a very busy businessman how he would be able to find time to pray because he's just too busy with all his responsibilities. And then she asked him, tell me about your responsibilities. And he described them and he said, you're right, you are one busy man. So you don't need a holy hour. You need two holy hours.

You're not going to be effective in leading others with all your responsibilities unless you're able to lead them to God. And so you're going to need to spend more time in prayer, not less. We've got to grasp what our priorities are. Is God truly our priority? Because if he is, we're going to prioritize him. If he's not, we're going to de-emphasize him. And sometimes we have to get super practical about that.

In my calendar, I put Jesus for my holy hours. Now, when I'm doing my holy hour at 4.15 in the morning, there's not a lot of competition for my time, except when I have to get up at 2.30 to write articles.

But when I was paraphrased and often would be called out in the middle of the night to do anointing calls, it can't fall back asleep. And so I've got to at least get a few hours during the day so that I'm not biting people's heads off out of just the lack of patience that comes when you're super tired. I then have to make my holy hour later in the day.

and I tell my parents secretary, she could see my schedule, that I had Jesus from 2 to 3 p.m. and not to interrupt me for anything whatsoever except for an anointing call. So once I tested her, I'm a very mischievous guy. So I had a friend of mine who was an Argentine, who spoke Italian, calling up

and say to Pauline, my paramilitary, that it was Pope Francis calling. And I needed to speak to Father Landry right away. It's very important. And at first, God bless her. She said, well, he's praying right now. And then my friend just says, I repeat, this is Pope Francis calling. And I need to speak to Father Landry right away.

And so she comes up and she knocks on the chapel door and she says, I don't know what to say. I'm like really super nervous, but the Holy Father's on the phone and he wants to talk to you right now. And I said, please go back and tell him that I'm talking to his boss and I'll call him when I'm ready.

I said, I can't tell him that. You need to tell him that. I said, no, I'm talking to Jesus right now. And so there she went. She's sheepishly, and my friend's recording the entire conversation. She's not coming. He says he's talking to your boss, Jesus. There were some other funny parts of the conversation afterward when he starts yelling at her and following the rest.

My twin brother and I used to call each other secretaries and we just like, where are you? I've been looking all over for you. I've been at my desk the entire time. You weren't there five minutes ago when I was walking by. Just like, yeah, I've been here for the last week. Well, now come to think about it. I did go outside for a smoke. Busted. Okay, so we used to have some fun.

But we've got to prioritize Jesus. We've got to make the appointment with Jesus. We've got to treat him the same way. If we had an appointment with the Holy Father, if we had an appointment with the President of the United States, we had an appointment with the Secretary General. If we had an appointment with Jamie Diamond, if we had an appointment with you name, the person you'd want to meet. Taylor Swift.

If we had an appointment with someone who was really important that we wouldn't cancel and that we'd cut class for, that we'd miss a meal for, that we'd even miss an hour of sleep for, we've got to treat Jesus that way.

For us to learn how to pray, we've got to know the importance of silence. We can't be afraid of silence. God's first language, Cardinal Surah, told us, is silence. He speaks to us non-verbally when we pray. He's trying to give himself to us. We've got to learn how to handle it. And it's tough in our age in which we've constantly got air pods, funnel music or podcasts, do you name it?

just not to have the noise around us. We can be very uncomfortable. We've got to cultivate silence. We've got a couple things there, Elijah and Mount Horeb. Not in the cacophony. Zechariah, when he doubted the miracle that he'd been praying for in the temple that his wife Elizabeth would be able to conceive a son, the son who would be John the Baptist. He was struck mute for nine months so that he could ponder what was happening and not waste

the grace so that he could also ponder our lady when she would come to care for Elizabeth, the one with the contemplative heart. Well, Benedict said, our age is not one that fosters recollection. It's necessary that the people who God be educated in the power of silence. Cardinal Surah adds, God waits for our silence to reveal himself. The true revolution comes from silence.

Because God is that great revolutionary who wants us to turn with Him. We can only really heed His instructions when we turn off all the new ways that can prevent our hearing, His whisper. Party said that prayer is an art, not a technique. It involves inspiration. It's an exchange of persons. We have the help of the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us and teaches us how to pray because we don't know how to pray as we are.

This is St. Augustine. Holy Spirit helps us to pray, not by quid aurez, but qualez aurez. Not by what we say when we pray, but how or who we are as we pray. He changes us so that we can cry out as beloved sons and daughters, daddy, so that we don't have to think that we've got to grovel before his divine majesty.

We recognize that we've got a loving father. He changes us so that we're able to pray with confidence. Cheeses whole teachings on prayer and a sermon in the Mount were about this. Which father would give you a stone when you ask for loaf of bread, or poison a seal when he asked for fish. You know how to give your kids good things when they ask you. How much more will you have on your father? Give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. God wants to give himself.

God is the chief of protagonists in prayer, but we've got to cooperate with them. We think we're principally the ones acting in prayer, but it's ultimately God. We have to give them the permission to act. We go through the entire sacred scripture on prayer. Don't really have the time to do that all. But Adam and Eve were praying to the guard. Abel was praying. Noah was praying. Abraham

His whole biography is one of prayer. Jacob wrestled with God. Moses was constantly praying on the mountain and to the Lord in the tent. Samuel, at a young age, speak Lord for your servants' listening. David was praying. He prayed for his son to be saved. He prayed.

with confidence to the Lord before he battled against Goliath. He prayed in contrition after his great series of sins. He wrote several of the psalms. Solomon, at 18 years old, as a college freshman prayed, does anybody by chance have something to charge a battery? I'm afraid I'm going to lose our discipline working on things.

Elijah prayed for the widow of Zarepath. You can still see if that works. I'm cutting the USB-C, but... Okay. Did know that I could still use one of those old-fashioned ones. The Psalms are

God's inspired words so that we could use in our conversation with Him. But the biggest way we learn how to pray, which is the main focus of tonight, is how Jesus teaches us to pray. His prayer led the disciples to ask Him to be their great master. And He had essentially come from heaven to earth to teach us to pray how to receive and respond to His Father's love, how to enter into this exchange of persons with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So there are four ways Jesus teaches us to pray. The first is his example of prayer. He was God, and he was always, according to his humanity, making time to pray. Then we have his actual recorded prayers in the hospitals. What a treasure these are. Third, we see what he reveals about the characteristics of those who pray well and poorly. And fourth, we have how he concretely responded to this petition.

Lord, teach us to pray. He taught us to pray the Our Father. And so those are the four courses in Jesus' school of prayer. We'll have a chance briefly to go through them. First, Jesus' example of prayer, something he was always doing. He was taking himself apart from the crowds in solitude. At night or very early in the morning, apart from others on mountainsides in the middle of boats to have some quiet time with his father.

We see him praying for 40 days in the desert before he called the 12 apostles, before his transfiguration, before many of his miracles. We see him praying during the Last Supper in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. And in all of this, he's constantly saying to us, follow me. If anyone didn't need to pray, it would have been him who is God. But he still was praying.

keeping that communion with his father by the power of the Holy Spirit, praying for us, praying for other things, praying for the miracles he was given. And in all of this, he wants us to follow his example. For the most part, we don't know the content of Jesus' vital prayer life. Most of it was probably ineffable.

incapable of being expressed by words. We know that he often prayed in silence or with sighs. That's recorded in Sacred Scripture where it says that he sighed deeply. But some of his prayers have been recorded by the evangelists. And this shouldn't form our prayer. Matthew 11, Jesus prayed,

I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for what you have hidden from the wise and the clever you have revealed to the merest of children. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. I miss those just so that you pay attention.

Praise in the Father, you're going to notice something in all of Jesus' prayers. It's Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba. Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad. Every single one of his prayers basically starts off with the Father. See, before he raised Lazarus from the dead, he cried out before he said, Lazarus, come forth. Father, I thank you for having heard me.

I know that you always hear me, but I have said this so that they may believe that you sent me. Again, father and gratitude. She's a great priestly prayer in John 17. Again, father, the hours come, glorify your son so that your son may glorify you. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me. Now, glorify me, father, with you with the glory I had before the foundation of the world.

Then I pray for them, meaning the apostles. I don't pray for the world, but for the ones you have given me because they're yours. And I've been glorified them. Keep them in your name that you have given me so that they may be one as we are one. I don't ask you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one, consecrate them, cut them off in the truth. Your Word is true.

As you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world. And I cut myself off for them, so that they might be consecrated in truth. I don't pray just for them, but for all those who will believe in me through their word, us. So that they may be one, as you father and me, and I am in you. So may they be completely one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you love me just as in you love them just as much as you love me.

I wish that where I am, they also may be with me, so that they may see my glory that you gave me. This great, priestly prayer of Jesus, if I were poked for a nanosecond, this would become a eucharistic prayer. Right after the words of consecration, because that's what Jesus prayed during the Last Supper. These are his big prayers. We see what the content of his prayer is, but father, father, father, father, father, father is the first big word.

And we see his prayers from the garden of Gethsemane. Abba, if it's possible, let this cup pass for me, but not as I will, but as you will. On the cross, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Father, which was quoting a psalm. So he was using the word for God rather than Dad, so that everybody would know the psalm.

cried on the loud voice, I'll buy into your hands. I commend my spirit. And that was the last word he said on earth. Jesus was constantly praying and we entered into his prayers. It's important to take these to our own prayer so that we can become an existential echo of what he himself would say. Pope Francis gave a two year catechesis on prayer, just like Pope Benedict had nine years earlier.

And he summarized the content and the characteristics of what Jesus teaches us in this way. First, looking at Jesus' prayer, we see the primacy of prayer. It's his first desire of the day, something that's practiced even before dawn, before the world awakens. Do we have that same priority? Listen, it's great to pray at any time. We're called to pray always, and we'll talk about what that means.

Ultimately, it means that we're trying to do everything and communion with the Lord. But for most people, the best time to pray is before we do anything else. We're not as distracted. We can give God our full attention.

Sometimes people who are addicted to caffeine may need to get a few espressos in their system before they're able to do it. But most of us are going to pray way better in the morning than we will at night after we've got all the baggage of the day as well as the fatigue. There are exceptions to this, but it just strongly urge that if you want to become an existence-made prayer that the path for almost all of you

before you check your email, before you check your texts, before you check the news, you give your full attention to God. Second is insistence. Jesus himself says to us, knock, knock, knock, prayers, not sporadic, but disciplined. We'll have a chance to talk more about that. Solitude. Those who pray, don't escape from the world, but prefer deserted places and silence where God speaks. Can't be afraid of solitude.

This is why introverts have a little bit of an easier time with meditative and contemplative prayer than extroverts. But if extroverts are able to pray out loud in front of the blessed sacrament on their own, they do just fine. Which is why I always had my own chapel. Prayers always focused on God's will. Not my will, but yours be done.

When we really love the Lord, we want what He loves. And that's why we say, not against the grain, but with the grain, I will be done. In the same way that a man who loves a woman wants to please her. Okay, third part is what Jesus reveals about the attributes of Christian prayer. First thing that He teaches us is that prayer is to the Father who loves us.

like all the dads and moms throughout all of history have loved their children combined. These most beautiful words from the Son of the Mom. Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about what you don't worry about your life to the anxious generation. This is what God says. Do not worry.

Don't worry about your life, but what you eat or drink or about your body, what you wear, is life not more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the sky, they don't sow or eat, they gather nothing in a barn, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them, are you not more important than they? Can any of you buy your anxiety at a single moment to your lifespan? Why do you worry about your clothes?

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They don't work or spend, yet not even Solomon and all his glory was arrayed like one of them. God so close the grass of the field, which grows today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire. How much more will He take care of you over your own faith? Jesus was saying this about the most important human needs, shelter, clothing, food, and drink. If you're saying it about this, He's saying it affords your about grad school

or about jobs, or about relationships, and everything else that's not as important as this. Prayer's got to be not just to the Father, but to a Father whom we know cares for us more than the Sparrows or the Lilys. Cares for us so much that when there was a choice between allowing His Son, Jesus to be brutally executed, or us

to live and die outside of a relationship with him, shows us over his mangled crucified only begotten son. That's why we have confidence in going to pray because we know of the love of the Father. That was Jesus' big revelation about prayer. We could mic drop now

And it would have been worth it for you to come if you got that one point about the quality of prayer, praying to a confident Father. If we get this right, everything else is downhill. If we don't get this right, because of our own self-hatred and our own hatred of our own defects, if we think God's got to hate our defects as much as we hate our defects, then we're never going to be able to pray a right.

We think God really isn't merciful. We're not going to pray right. We don't recognize at the same time that He is demanding because He's made us and He knows we're capable of it. That He's not going to treat us as incapable of the higher life to which He calls us. We're not going to be able to pray the right way. Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father. Many people don't have a relationship with God, the Father.

I'll ask them sometimes, like, so can you characterize your relationship with God the Father for me? And they'll say, with great honesty and sincerity, God bless them, I don't have any relationship with God the Father. I said, really? So to whom do you pray the Our Father? Oh, I guess I was praying that to Jesus. Jesus gave you the Our Father to pray to His Father. Oh,

Sometimes we just don't pay attention to what we're actually doing as we pray. But we can learn so much about the Father by what Jesus instructs us to ask the Father. Because Jesus wants to put in us a desire for what the Father really wants to give us. Why He wants to give us that? We'll talk more. He likewise says, ask and we'll be given to you. See, can you find knock and the door will be open to you? Incredible guarantees.

Second is prayer is helped by the Holy Spirit Jesus was likewise promising the gift of the Holy Spirit who helps us to cry out Abba Father At that very moment Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said I give you praise Father The Holy Spirit will help us even in duress

The spirit will guide us to all truth. Spirit was helping the church pray at the first Pentecost. Where's my Saint Paul quotes? I don't even know why they're not there, but like that the spirit Romans 5 has been ported to our hearts so that we're able to cry out of a Father. Likewise, we don't know how to pray as we are. The Spirit has been given to us.

To pray in Jesus' name is the third quality. To pray in Jesus' name doesn't mean we just pray for whatever we ask for, and then we just say like a good Protestant. In Jesus' name, Amen. To pray in Jesus' name, the name is a sign of the person. This is super important for us to get in biblical mentality.

that the reason why we have a name is because we are represented by that name. It's not so much arbitrary in a biblical context. Now it's arbitrary, and we just are like prince and make up our own sort of characters for our name. That's totally arbitrary. But we're given a name so that we can be in an I-Vow relationship, so that when somebody cries out Roger, I turn, and somebody calls out.

Drake, you turn. It's a sign of who we are, body and soul, represents us. And so when we pray in the name of Jesus, it means to be able to pray in the person of Jesus, to ask for what Jesus would ask for. There's a lot of what we would ask for. Jesus would never ask for it. Please help the Yankees win the World Series. Why would Jesus ever ask for it? That's a joke.

Okay. But a lot of times we'll ask for vengeance on our enemies. A lot of the times we'll ask for what seems to be good, but in the long run Jesus wants to give us something better. But to ask in His name. He gives incredible promises. Whatever you ask my name, I will do. Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. For the Father Himself loves you.

Because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. Were two or three or gathered together in my name there, am I in the midst? Should I be able to pray in the name of Jesus, to pray in the person of Jesus, to pray what Jesus would pray for? Do we care what Jesus would pray for? What's Jesus praying for you? It's so much more important than what you're praying for yourself. What's Mary praying for you? What's God the Father want to give you? Faith.

Jesus says, everything's possible to one who was faith. We have the faith the size of a mustard seed. We can transplant the Appalachian Trail. Faith means trust in God. We pray with trust that He can do it and that He loves us and that He will listen to us and that He will really give us what He knows we most need.

So to pray with faith doesn't just mean an act of belief in God's power to do what we're asking, but also in his wisdom and his love to be able to evaluate what we're asking and then give us what we really need.

A lot of the times people don't pray with that latter part of faith. They'll know that he could do anything, but then they become discouraged that, listen, I asked you to cure my grandmother from cancer and you haven't. Well, like, maybe he loves our grandmother more than we do, and maybe he wants her with him, even though we want her to remain with us. Do we trust him? Do we have faith in his wisdom and goodness and not just in his power?

humility and repentance, the next attributes, the catechism stresses humility as the foundation of prayer. But we don't deserve what we're asking for, but that's what's so awesome about it, that we're able to talk to the person on the top floor simply because he cares about us.

repentance is part of it like that tax collector in the temple. Lord, be merciful to me as sinner. Conversion of heart is a necessary aspect. And what this really means is conversion of heart toward our brothers. But he wants us to be able to pray together with others. And if we're not reconciled with others, we can't pray with those with whom we're not reconciled.

So he wants us to fix that problem before we come to him, gives that whole image if you bring in your offering before you alter, but recognize your brother has anything against you, go first, reconcile with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift. What he wants from us first is that type of peace and harmony, that type of mutual love with others.

And so it's an attribute of our prayer that we're seeking what he seeks for us. We're not just again saying, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. And I'm going to go on hating my brother or my sister. We've got to come recognizing that that's what he's asking, which is small compared to what we're asking of him. Rectitude of intention, he says, that we're not doing it to win anybody's esteem. We're not virtue signaling about how holy we are.

but that we're enhancing our relationship with him, that our treasures first in him, not what we're asking him to give us, that we're called to seek first his kingdom and his holiness, recognizing everything else is secondary. Perseverance, he gives us two great parables on perseverance.

one about a friend knocking at the door of a neighbor for bread, another of an import-tune woman asking for justice from a corrupt judge. And the main thing is, if a friend would eventually get up because being driven crazy or a corrupt judge would eventually give justice, lest he suffer the consequences of a shoe thrown across a room, in contrast to that, how much more will a father loves us, give us,

what He knows we need. We've got to persevere. And why does God want us to persevere? Why doesn't He give it to us always the first time? First, He wants us to purify our intentions. Do we care about what we're asking for more than we care about God? If God's always responding by giving Himself to us, is He our treasure or is what we're asking for us?

So our desires can be purified, but then second, he wants to train us to persevere faithfully in life by having us persevere faithfully in prayer. If we got what we asked for immediately all the time, we would all become spiritual spoiled perhaps. Just like the kid of a billionaire who doesn't know how to love by saying no, but just, okay, I'll give you another thing. He wants to cut candy too with that lollipop. I mean, all the rest of his God loves us too much for that.

What's the second parable? Vigilance, he wants. Stay awake. You don't know the day the Lord will come. Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. Vigilance for God and persevering prayers is an essential aspect to praying well. Union with the will of God is next. Not everyone who cries out Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the Father's will. Jesus' food was to do the will of his Father in heaven.

And again, this is straightforward in prayer. When we love somebody, we want what the one we love wants. There's a sharing of wills, Edem Valley, Edem Dole, the old Latin said, you want the same things, you reject the same thing. And when we're praying to the Lord with love, we want what He wants. We seek His will.

We come to know his will, we come to love his will, and then we do his will because we know what pleases him. That's our great aspiration. Jesus not only teaches us how to pray, but the catechism stresses likewise often hears our prayers. And now let's turn to the Our Father. There's a direct response to the petition to teach us how to pray.

the summary, Tertullian said, 1800 years ago, the whole gospel. Because there are two different forms of the Our Father and St. Matthew's and St. Luke's gospel, we learn that Jesus was not teaching us a road formula, who is ultimately teaching us about how to relate to the Father. So it's less about magic words than about the relationship and the content of what we're asking for.

I would love still. It's a great desire of mine to just preach a whole retreat on the words of Daniel's teachering. We dare to say. We dare to say that the Our Father is a really audacious prayer. And if we don't understand why it's so bold, we don't get the prayer. It takes courage to pray the Our Father. I remember once in Fall River,

Bedford actually I was preparing somebody for entrance into the church and you know a person was doing great classes studying doing all the rest of it like Easing everything but still hesitant to get in a couple of the forms in so I met with the person it's just like what's going on why haven't you gotten them forms it's just like well I'm not sure I can become a Christian I said okay why not what's what's your concern well I just don't think I could pray the Our Father

What part? I don't think I can pray the part. Forgive us our trespasses, just as we have forgiven those who have trespassed against us. I said, who are you struggling to forgive? And she said her brother and we had a long conversation, but like forgive us our sins just as we are forgiven our brothers. And if we haven't forgiven our brothers, then don't forgive us our sins. Send me to hell because I need to be forgiven to go to heaven. Send me to hell is what we're saying in that prayer.

Is that what we mean? It's one aspect of the courage that's required to pray it. We dear to say, in the Holy Spirit helps us to cry out Abba Father in this prayer. The first word of the Our Father is pot tear. In English, we put the adjectives before the word, and so our comes for us. But the first word out of Jesus' mouth was Abba. When you pray, say Abba, and he could have stopped right then. But then everything else he teaches is what

should govern our relationship with the father. So let's look at it. First father, we are his beloved adoptive children, just even saying his name is already praising him. The other day somebody was helping me move and saw an old business card from the Holy See on one of my suitcases with which I was moving close and it said Reverend Roger J. Landryon. And she said like,

A priest can be called Reverend. Why don't you ever use the word Reverend like the Protestant ministers do? I said, because the greatest compliment anybody could ever give me is Father. You know, regardless of whatever titles come, Father is that word, which is why so many bishops love it when people call them Father.

It's just love being in the restaurant. They love being in the airport, and somebody comes out and says, Father, can you plus his rose repeats? And it's just that you're, people don't have to say, you're eminence. You're excellency. You're pulk-retude. No, that's not one of, that's not one of the faucatives. But Father, what a hymn of praise had already is just to say that word. God, the Father hopes that we understand what that means. That it will die for you.

that I have given you my life, that I love you, our second word, potter whom own a Greek father of us. We're not praying individualistically, we're praying in communion with others, that we recognize that he's our father, you are my brothers and sisters. And if he loves me, he loves you. So if he loves you and I'm seeking his will, we're about to say that I will be done, means I've got to love you.

Like he loves getting into the boldness of this prayer. We're two or three are gathered, Jesus is there in our midst helping us to pray. We pray our Father in spite of some sad division. We don't exclude anyone. And then we get into certain things.

We start in the Our Father with God. Jesus teaches us how to pray. He's teaching us focus on the Father. If you're immature and it's just give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me, give me. No, focus on the Father. Going to focus first on praise and thanksgiving and then on Him. Who art in heaven? Heaven is less a place up there.

than a way of being. It's a state. We seek to be with the Father as citizens of heaven. He, not it, is our true homeland. So when we say art and heaven, we're saying, who art where I want to be? I want to be with you. I miss you, Father. But I don't want you coming to me. I want to go to you. Hello, be thy name.

Hallo means to make holy. God's name is already holy. So what are we asking for? That his name be sanctified by us, that we be ones who are able to glorify him. Jesus said that in a sermon in the mouth, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. This is what we pray for when we pray hallowed be your name. We want your name to be hallowed, not mine.

Seth, the Old Testament, wanted to make a name for himself. We want to glorify God's name, not our own. One of the reasons for the vocation's crisis in the church is because a lot of parents are super selfish. If they've got one son, that's their only shot to pass on their family name.

And a lot of the times they care about the transmission of their own family name more than they do about the transmission of God's holy name and the making of fellow Christians. It's sad. Likewise with women who are called to be women religious, parents sometimes are very happy that their daughter is faithful. But they really prefer grandkids rather than a daughter who becomes a sister. It wasn't always that way.

But let's be blunt, it was rare in the olden days when families had 10 kids that they wanted all 10 to become priests and religious. It was their deal that one guy could become a priest, one girl could become a sister, but the rest are going to be passing on our genes. They might be able to compromise on one or two. But now when family small sizes are smaller, not only are there fewer, but also there's

The selfishness comes up and the lack of faith sometimes comes on up and we have to confront it. Do we really want God's name to be hallowed and what will we do to hallow that name? Thy kingdom come. This is what we're focused on this week of Christ the King. Jesus' whole preaching was about the kingdom of God's being at hand and growing.

We want his kingdom not our own fiefdom. We want him to be in control rather than ourselves or anybody else. And we know what his kingdom is about. It's not worldly. It's about the various things we talked about last night that he summarized in the parables and about the kingdom and so many the other statements about the kingdom. And perhaps hardest to say, Thigh will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

that we really want His plans to be actuated, not our own. We want to be cooperative with His plan of the salvation of the world. Jesus would once say when somebody said outside of Peter's house, your mother and your cousins are out wanting to see you. He said, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and observe it.

that we try to do the Lord's will. So notice, we're not saying, my name be hallowed, my will be done. My kingdom cup, we're saying, thy thy thy. It's about father, father, father, father, father. We want him to be the star. Then finally, after we've started with the father and really prayed for the big stuff,

Deeringly Then we get to our needs So Jesus again puts these on her lips, and they're all related to the father. What does a father do? He provides He protects And he forgives And that's what we ask He doesn't punish He medicinally forgives sometimes even with

a little bit of chastisement, but all coming for merciful love. So give us today our apoecios bread in the Greek. I've said this a lot. Maybe you're here for the first time, but the word translated is daily. That's like the sixth option. The clear first option is super substantial. Every Greek speaking, Christian growing up knew exactly what this meant.

Give us each day, the Eucharist. Give us each day the living bread come down from heaven. Give us each day your son. The first thing we're praying for for ourselves is the Eucharist. When Jesus announced in the Capernaum synagogue that we need to eat his flesh and drink his blood, that he is the true manna, that just as their ancestors got manna every day in the desert for 40 years but still died,

The one who feeds on me will never die, he says. And so they cry out, sir, give us this bread always. Give us this manah always. And then he does. The Father does. Every single day. The 407,000 priests in the world are celebrating five, six, 700,000 masses, including with funerals and second masses, from the rising the sun to its setting. He rains down from heaven every single day.

our happy who see us bread. What should our response be to that? We ask for it, we beg for it, we cry out for it, the Father gives it. What's our response? Well, very good for those nine-year-olds with nothing better to do in their life that they're able to be nourished by the Blessed Sacrament. Okay?

But think about the Christmas gift you wanted most in your life. Maybe for guys of a certain generation, at least, it was a bicycle of our own. Didn't have to share a bike anymore. We really wanted a bike. And then you get the big box, where if it wasn't a box, trying to wrap a bike. I think you could have an IQ of negative 40 and still be able to determine

But imagine you're asking for a bike, and you get a bike, but you'd never take the wrap and paper off and use it. Please, imagine if you ask for a PlayStation, and never take it out of the box. Imagine you ask for a new computer, or a new iPhone. Don't immediately start downloading apps and trying to use it and calling your friends. But what?

Give us today our EpiUCOS bread! And we're not going to conform our whole life to that gift. We're not going to rip off the wrapping paper. We're not immediately going to say, I want to receive.

Tomorrow I have to give a couple talks in Connecticut one talk to all the kids in the school. They want me to talk about the Eucharistic Saints, especially young saints. This is a fun little assignment, but I'm going through basically all these young Eucharistic Saints and pretty much every single one from a precociously young age wanted to be a daily maskover because they recognized it was really Jesus and how would they ever want a day to go by without receiving Jesus.

Took me until I was 18 to realize this, but since 18, I've been faithful. Give us today our Rabbi who sees us, Brad, and he does. First, biggest need, feed us in the nourishment we most need. Forgive us our trespasses. We have forgiven those who have trespassed us. This is an astonishing prayer for mercy.

must forgive even those who have made themselves are enemies from our heart. This is the one petition he comments on. For if you don't forgive others, there since neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you yours. But if you do forgive others, there since your Heavenly Father will forgive you yours. And Pope Francis says very beautifully there. It's because our heart is a two way street. If we're not pumping out mercy to others, our heart is dead and we can't pump in God's mercy. It's got to be willy.

to pump out in order to be able to pump in. It's not because God doesn't want to give us his forgiveness, it's because our heart is sclerotic and can't receive his mercy if we refuse to be transformed by that mercy. Lead us not into temptation, we're asking humbly for the strength to be protected when tempted because we know how weak we are.

In the other languages, it's nono de hei skaiir in la nantathione. Nono nous de shei skaiir intente sound. These non abandunar chiantentat sione. These are all, when we're in temptation, don't let us collapse, don't let us fall, strengthen us, uphold us. Don't let us face these trials on our own. And finally, deliver us from the evil one. We ask for protection from the devil.

His empty promises evil works. And this is likewise a prayer for final perseverance. Don't let the devil win in the end. That's what Jesus teaches us to pray for. He's not asking us to pray for a sweet, red, poorish. He's not asking us to pray for worldly fame or money so that we can use it for Him. Very basic. You Lord, you, you, you, you, you, you. And then because you're a father,

Give me the Eucharist, give me confession, in a transformative way, and give me your protection. These are the most important things we need to be asking the Father. Jesus helps us to prioritize the most important stuff of all. Okay. We can learn how to pray through Mary. I've got a few slides that I can go with you, and then I'm looking forward to your questions. Mary taught the early church how to pray.

in the upper room. She wants to teach the church in every age. She was continuously overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. It shows us how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. She was a woman of faith. Blessed are you who believe that what the Lord said to you would be fulfilled. She was a woman of silence, treasuring everything within her heart. She was a woman of the Word with a contemplative memory, piecing everything together.

She was a woman who asked questions. Questions aren't incompatible with faith in God or prayer. How can this be for a will not know me and are you asking me to change my power of virginity somehow? Otherwise she would have easily known how she would have conceived a son. She's a woman of intercessory prayers who see in Can of Galilee praying for the couple before they even knew they had a problem. And we seek to pray in communion with her. Hence the importance of the Rosary, the Angelus, the Memorari, and the other prayers.

So she's one of the great teachers in the school of prayer. God fear his forms of prayer, which is the content of prayer. Point for us to grasp these. Sometimes we think prayers just ask him for stuff. The first and the highest form of prayer is praise, which we love God because he's simply lovable. Next, very important this week is thanksgiving in which we express our gratitude to the Lord for all that he's given.

If we really paid attention to how graced our life is, this could take up a whole holy hour. We beg His forgiveness for the ways that we haven't praised Him. We've been aware of Him, thanked Him, that we've sinned against Him. We've chosen Barabbas in the disguise, you name it. That we intercede before Him for what others need. We're constantly praying for others. It's a way to make sure that our prayers never selfish.

Then we pray for what we need, not just what we want, but what we need. But I'm praying for what you want to give me. What a wise prayer that is. Then we can ask for the big stuff. Make me a saint. Make my loved one, saints. Make Donald Trump a saint. Make Kathy Hocho a saint.

Convert the whole porn industry. Convert the war industry. Et cetera. Sometimes before the Lord, it's like going before Elon Musk and asking, can you give me a free pencil? He's capable of giving more. For various expressions of prayer, these are the ways by which we pray. The first

way most of us learn how to pray is with vocal prayer. These are words given to us by others. They don't have to be expressed out loud. You can pray vocal prayers silently, but they're the words that come from others, the our fathers of vocal prayer. The Hail Mary is a vocal prayer. The act of contrition is a vocal prayer. The acts of faith, open love, the angelist, the memorari, you name it. They're all vocal prayers, the rosary. Vocal prayers are super important not just to train us out of pray,

But when we're suffering, when our emotions are hijacking our entire being, we can still pray vocal prayers. We won't be able to concentrate any other type of prayer. So it's important that we esteem them. But they're not the son of prayer. Next is meditation. It comes from the Latin word for rumination, which we chew on particular parts, like the gospels. There are two ways to do it. I could explain it more later. We wish.

One is by putting ourselves in the scene, this was St. Ignatius Liola, we put the elements of the scene together and we break them on down so that we're an eyewitness of what takes place. And once we really are and I witness seeing it from all the angles, we will never forget it. And then Lexio Devina, which we start with a text, apply it to ourselves, say to God, this is the help that I need in order to live it, envision ourselves putting it into practice,

and then carrying out that resolution. That's like sutavina. And then contemplation is something we can't do on our own. It's a gift by God in which he raises our prayer up to just the level of affections. Our mind is shut down, and this is brutal for people when it starts to happen.

All of a sudden yesterday and for the last three years I've been able to pray just fine and now I can't concentrate at all. I'm so full of distractions. I'm focused super hard. Got a good night's rest last night. What's going on? Why can't I pray anymore? Because God wants us to start changing from a learning exercise in a classroom down to a thing of love. He's got to shut down our brain to do it. Eventually, once we are able to pray effectively,

It's very simply before the Lord. It can turn on the mind again, but our prayer is no longer the meditation it was before. We might think of an idea and then bang, it goes affection. If you think of another idea and then bang, it brings us to no communion of affection with the Lord. So whereas meditation has the head as the principal organ, contemplation is the heart of the soul.

Fawns are prayer. This is where we go to have our prayer inspired. This is where the raw materials are found. There are lots of them, but the Word of God is obviously a big one. The liturgy of the church, the prayers that the church makes, faith, hope and love are great fawns. When we understand what they mean, it's real trust in the Lord. And what he says and does is confidence in all that he's promised. The love with which he loves us.

day-to-day life is a great source of prayer where we take that before the Lord. Why has this happened, Lord? Not, why could you let this happen? But knowing that everything means something. That everything's either the Lord's direct will or is permissive will. So we can take that up in our prayer with the Lord. Guides of prayer, there are many. The saints are the great guides of prayer. They show us what prayer really looks like. Spirituality carries them that have been approved by the church.

Likewise, our great schools of prayer, the family is meant to be a school of prayer. Thanks be to God, some of you will meet my parents last night, but my earliest memory is of praying the rose reals of family. I wasn't even three, I was close to three, but I was praying the rose reals. Trying to be the center of attention and said, blessed is the fruit of thy womb apple.

and everybody's catalyzed and nobody knows how to respond. My mom just simply says to me, honey, apples are good. Jesus is even better. Do you want something that's good or better? Better! Okay, do you want to try it again? Yes, mom. And I've never made the same mistake again. But my earliest memory is of praying the rosary.

represent just what a gift that is, huh? Families are supposed to be schools of prayer. Where data ministers are supposed to be guides of prayer, people who teach, by example, by words. Religious priests, sisters, brothers are all supposed to be teachers above all of prayer, not social work, not charity. First and foremost, prayer before we get to anything else.

Catechists supposed to be teachers of prayer. I have to do this with catechists all the time. It's not about teaching the Ten Commandments. It's not about teaching the attitudes. It's not about teaching the Old Testament or the New Testament. It's not teaching about the sacraments. All of these are important. The first and foremost thing you need to do if they learn one thing from you is how to pray. How to really contact God. The most important thing we give to anybody is that God's accessible

Everything else has got to flow into our prayer life, lest catechism become just another class. And for kids, the least important class of all. Spiritual directors are supposed to be real teachers in prayer.

and how to have our prayer overflow into the entirety of our life. Prayer groups are supposed to be teachers of prayer, not just groups that pray together, but are able to pass on the art of prayer, especially those who are new. Prayer two through with and in the Eucharistic Jesus, it's so important that we learn how to pray the Mass. I'm not going to ponder the point all that much. I give it to you a lot here.

We need to learn to pray before Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration. For this, do we really believe it's Jesus that we're before someone and not something? We need to learn how to do our Jesus within us when we're received and become walking monstrances. Just like Mary did when she was gestating Jesus. And there are some obstacles to prayer. Dryness is one.

don't let it thwart you. It's normal for us to be dry so that our affections can grow and it can become more a part of the will when we're not feeling anything and still do the right thing. Distractions. Again, it shouldn't thwart us. St. Teresa about what considered them like flies. Not flies that bite. Just flies that fly around. They can distract us, but they can't hurt us.

And so we just, if every time we're distracted, we do one of two things. We return, we convert the distraction into a prayer. Lord, I'm distracted by what I'm going to have for breakfast. Please help me to hunger for every word that you give me. For example, we convert that into a prayer. Or we just have a, no matter what the distraction is, we always go back to Lord, I'm distracted by what I'm going to have for breakfast. But please transform me by your love.

one of the purposes of prayer, that we always go back. If we have to say a thousand times in 30 minutes, Lord, transform me by your love, then our prayer would have been extremely effective, even if we were distracted the whole time. Discouragement, when we feel that our prayer hasn't been heard or a failure, can be a big obstacle to prayer, we just need to say, Lord, I'm discouraged, fill me with greater trust.

helped me to persevere, not quit, but to recognize we're discouraged and we ask the Lord for greater boldness to continue. Fear of what God might ask and therefore we try to control the conversation with God. There are certain subjects that we don't want to talk. Hey, I'm praying my rosier every day, but I don't want to talk that I'm having a big time problem with chastity. Because you might say, I can't be looking at devices after such a time. Or I don't want them to say, you've got to forgive

Your cousin, or your former roommate, for that rumor, or you name it, a lot of the times we have an obstacle to prayer because we really don't want to ask to change. Those who are afraid of a particular vocation, their prayer can just all of a sudden totally atrophy. Lack of faith is an obstacle to prayer for obvious reasons, lack of perseverance,

because we have to persevere through prayer. We've got this soldier through lack of practical love for the Lord, for the Lord in living a Christian life. We just want prayer to be an exercise, but we don't want to be converted. It will be an obstacle to our prayer. Our prayer is supposed to impact our entire life. I wrote a whole book about this six years ago.

so that we can become an existence-made prayer and tie in the whole day to our prayer life. If you want to find more, you can read the book. I'll put up some slides of these talks later with the audio if I went too fast for you, so that you're able to follow and study, and now we get to the most important part, your questions. So, thanks everybody for your attention. We've got up to a half hour or so for questions.