Mental Prayer - Practice of Mental Prayer

Practice of Mental Prayer

Aids to prayer

St. Francis of Sales said: "Begin all prayer, whether mental or vocal, by an act of the Presence of God. If you observe this rule strictly, you will soon see how useful it is." He says that God is everywhere and is in our hearts and souls. Thus, "a blind man when in the presence of his prince will preserve a reverential attitude if told that the king is there, although unable to see him."

Mother Teresa said that "I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks." Her "simple path" states: "The fruit of silence is PRAYER. The fruit of prayer is FAITH. The fruit of faith is LOVE. The fruit of love is SERVICE. The fruit of service is PEACE."

There are some formulas which can help start and end mental prayer:

Preparatory Prayer: My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence, I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Closing prayer: I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections and inspirations that you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Topics for mental prayer

• Calling God by his name. As prayer means dealing with God as a person, then it is important to deal with God by means of calling him by the name by which he relates with us.
  • Jesus, the model of Christian prayer, used the word "Abba" or Daddy, an endearing Hebrew word to call God the Father. "A fundamental word in the mouth of 'the Son' is 'Abba'," said Benedict XVI. "It expresses his whole being, and all that he says to God in prayer is ultimately only an explication of his being (and hence an explication of this one word)." The Catechism quotes St. Augustine: Our Father: at this name love is aroused in us . . . and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask. . . . What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?
  • "The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer. All liturgical prayers conclude with the words "through our Lord Jesus Christ". The Hail Mary reaches its high point in the words "blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The Eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Many Christians, such as St. Joan of Arc, have died with the one word "Jesus" on their lips." " (CCC 435)
• Focus on God. Benedict XVI said in Jesus of Nazareth: "Prayer is not about this or that; it's about God's desire to give us the gift of himself, the gift of gifts -- the one thing necessary." "The gift of God is God himself." The Catechism of the Catholic Church thus questioned focusing on other things: "how could the prayer of the children of adoption be centered on the gifts rather than the Giver?" (2740)
  • "We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and that of history the page on which the "today" of God is written." (CCC 2707)
  • Meditating on the life of Jesus Christ. In Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI kept on repeating Jesus' point: "He who sees me sees the Father." "The figure of Jesus is the mirror in which we come to know who God is and what he is like." That God is love. St. Francis of Sales said: "I commend earnest mental prayer to you, more particularly such as bears upon the Life and Passion of our Lord. If you contemplate Him frequently in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with Him, you will grow in His Likeness, and your actions will be molded on His."