for each of Jesus’ wounds, because Jesus has cleansed us with his wounds.”
Most of us were taught the Our Father, the Hail Mary, Grace Before Meals, the Rosary, and other basic Catholic prayers as children. These prayers remain a constant source of spiritual support throughout our lives. But it is not uncommon for people to seek other ways to pray at different stages in life.
Some people look for new styles of prayer because they feel a deep desire to grow closer to God. Others want to strengthen their relationship with Jesus or tap into the power of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual dryness and the feeling that God is very distant can cause people to search for new prayer forms. A lot of people look for new ways to pray when something bad happens, when they are struggling with a difficult decision, or when they realize that they are not in control of their own lives or the lives of the people around them.
Sometimes, new ways to pray come to people unexpectedly. Family members might share how a particular type of prayer helped them. A parish might offer a lecture series on Catholic prayer forms. A friend might extend an invitation to join a prayer group or suggest a book about prayer.
The stories in this chapter reflect some of the different ways Catholics have learned to pray. Keep in mind, however, that no matter what prayer form we choose, Jesus urges us to persevere in prayer:
“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7–8)
Learning to Pray
My mother was my first guide and mentor into the realm of prayer and spirituality. When my siblings and I were youngsters, Mom taught us who God is, along with our first prayers. She impressed upon us that taking care of one’s soul was just as important as taking care of one’s body. She explained the rituals of our Catholic faith and, together with my father, ensured that we received the sacraments and knew our Catechism. Best of all, she showed us what it meant to be a compassionate, loving Christian by using the talents God had given her to make a better world around us.
Mom had been involved for over twenty-five years of her adult life as liturgist and organist at our local parish. My father directed the church choir. Mom and Dad used to tell us kids that “when you sing, you pray twice.” This is a saying ascribed to Saint Augustine. Now, in my adult years, my bedtime prayers remain the familiar ones taught in my childhood, and the liturgy takes on a whole new meaning when I try to sing my heart out, as my parents recommended. I really believe that my prayers arise to God as symbolic incense and melodic song.
— Vicki Kaufmann
How Catholics Pray
The beauty of the Catholic faith is that there are so many different types of prayer. We can pray by participating in the Mass, which is the highest and most perfect form of prayer. We can pray by reading Scripture or spiritual books. We can pray silently or out loud — speaking, singing, or whispering. We can kneel, sit, walk, dance, or lie prostrate in prayer. We can practice meditation or contemplation. We can keep a spiritual journal. We can pray with icons, relics, or a crucifix. We can go on a retreat. We can go on a pilgrimage to a holy place or simply place ourselves in the presence of the Lord in adoration. We can join a prayer group. We can participate in special devotions like the Stations of the Cross, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Rosary, or a novena. We can ask for the intercession of the Blessed Mother or the saints.
One of the best ways to pray is simply to talk to God from the depths of our hearts — thanking him for all of the good things in our lives and pouring out whatever pain, fears, questions, or doubts we might have. The ultimate prayer — and almost always the most difficult — is the prayer of Jesus during the agony in the garden, when he prayed, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
I Had No Joy
For the first forty years of my life, I could quote the Catechism and tell stories about saints and feast days, but I never had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ until I accidentally went to a Charismatic retreat weekend.
I had always avoided anything that sniffed of Charismatic because I thought “those people” were crazy. But during that weekend, I got zapped by the Holy Spirit. I learned how to pray in a different way. I learned how to pray through song and verbal prayer and praise. During a healing session, God started healing me from my childhood.
I also met two older women who told me their stories. These women should have been suicidal because of all the things that had happened to them, but they just glowed. I thought, “They’ve got something that I don’t have, and I don’t know what it is.” They invited me to join their prayer group. I came home and I told my husband, “I don’t know if it’s my style, but I’ve got to find out what it is.”
I went to this prayer group for seventeen years. What I discovered was joy. Before this, I had no joy. My faith was all about rules. This prayer group changed my image of God and saved my life.
— Carolyn McLean
What does it mean to be Charismatic?
The Charismatic Movement is a form of spiritual renewal within the Catholic Church that emphasizes developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and recognizing the power of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. Charismatic prayer groups meet weekly for praise, worship, singing, Scripture, teaching, testimony, sharing the gifts of the Spirit, and healing.
“Okay, Lord, You Got Me”
When I was a young adult, I dropped away from the practice of my Catholic faith for a while. Then my brother-in-law invited me to a Charismatic prayer group. They were doing a series on Saint Mark, and my name is Mark, so I thought, “Okay, I’ll go.”
That night they had a worship service, and it seemed a little strange to me. Just before the prayer group ended, they announced that they were going to pray over a woman in her sixties, who had cancer and was supposed to go for surgery that week. As they started praying over her, I said to myself, “Okay, Lord, if you heal this woman, I’ll keep coming back.”
The following Monday, my brother-in-law was pressuring me to go back to the prayer group. I was hemming and hawing, but finally, I said I would go. Just before the meeting started, they announced that the woman they prayed over the week before had gone to the hospital. The doctors went over her X-rays, but the tumor was gone.
I said, “Okay, Lord, you got me.”
— Mark Piscitello
I Turned to Prayer
After my mother had bypass surgery, she became very confused. The confusion came on suddenly, and it was shocking. She would talk gibberish about “bad boys at the bowling alley” and “going over Niagara Falls in wire baskets.” The doctors had fixed her heart, but her brain was broken.
The psychiatrist was sure it was Alzheimer’s. The neurologist said hypoxia from the surgery, and another diagnosis was multi-infarct dementia. I felt as if I had lost the mother I knew. I cried every day.
Then one day I found a novena at a little shrine. It was a handwritten note. The instructions were: “Say this prayer nine times a day for nine days: ‘May the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the most Blessed Sacrament, be praised, adored, and glorified with grateful affection, at every moment, in every tabernacle of the world — now until the end of time.’”
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