Prayer of St. Theresa

Ash Wednesday Prayer 2012

Dear Lord,

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten period before Easter. Again you have reminded us of your son, who after being baptised, was immediately sent to the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting for forty day, our Lord Jesus was hungry and it is on this hunger that the devil focus upon. Dear Lord, in this dangerous and hungry times, help us to focus on your spiritual truths.

Help us to go beyond our hunger for physical food to spiritual food.

Help us to move beyond our hunger for self-centered living to Christ-centered living.

Help us to transcend our hunger for worldly treasures to seek heavenly treasures.

Teach us again while our earthly hunger may be sated, we will hunger again. Only you and you alone will satisfy us such that we hunger no more.


Amen
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Five Ways to Pray the Psalms

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

May I suggest five ways we can pray the Psalms.

1. Say them out loud

One effective way to pray the Psalms is to read them out loud. Many of the Psalms are meant to be read in public assembly. Reading out loud not only helps you to proclaim the psalms, it also enables you to hear it. Speaking and listen are important aspect of prayers.

2. Use them as a jumping off platform

As you read the psalms, read it slowly and use the words, phrases, sentences as a platform to launch into your own prayers. After you have finished, then go back to where you left of and continue reading. Again launch off as you felt let to pray around the words or theme in the psalms. For example in Psalm 23:3, when you read “he restores my soul…” you might want to pray about your spiritual life, your present struggles and appeal for his intervention.

3. Paraphase them

Rewrite the psalms in your own words. When you paraphrase the psalm, you are interacting with you seek to understand the main points and to express it your way. It also helps to paraphrase in your own language if English is not your first language.

4. Memorise them

Memorising parts or whole psalms are another way to pray them. Repeat the psalms you have memorized continually and he begin to understand what St.Paul means when he asks us to praying unceasingly. Using memorized portion or whole of the psalms in your prayer is useful when you do not know what to say when you pray. Sometimes you will find that the psalmist can express your needs better than you can say it.


5. Let them talk to you

Use the spiritual discipline of lectio divina to read the psalms during your prayer and let the psalms speak to you. Lectio divina or spiritual reading involves reading, meditating, praying and contemplating. These four movements help us to listen to the psalms and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

These are some of the ways you can pray the psalms.


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Cloud of Unknowing

A No-Name Monk of Prayer and Love
The Cloud of Unknowing teaches us the peace that comes from learning to love.
Compiled and translated by Carmen Acevedo Butcher

Sometime during the last half of the 14th century, somewhere in England's East Midland area, some anonymous Carthusian monk (or priest) created one of the most enduring how-to books on prayer—The Cloud of Unknowing. His intentional anonymity illustrates his main message: Christ must become more visible as his followers grow kinder and humbler. Anonymous wants readers "sincere in their intentions to follow Christ" in love.

Finish this article from ChristianHistory.net.

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