Learning To Pray
Although many promises are associated with prayer, in his book "The Way to Christ" Pope John Paul II warned against "mechanical prayer" and pointed out the need for self-reflection before prayer. And in his message for the 42nd "World Day of Prayer" he said:
- "We have to learn to pray: as it were learning this art ever anew from the lips of the Divine Master himself, like the first disciples: 'Lord, teach us to pray!' (Lk 11:1)."
In Catholic tradition, there are many legends about the power of persistent prayer. In the fourth century, Saint Monica of Hippo is said to have prayed for the conversion of her son Augustine for fourteen years and he eventually became an influential figure in Christian thought.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholic Prayer
Famous quotes containing the words learning to, learning and/or pray:
“There are no other questions than these,
Half squashed in mud, emerging out of the moment
We all live, learning to like it. No sonnet
On this furthest strip of land....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The child amidst his baubles is learning the action of light, motion, gravity, muscular force; and in the game of human life, love, fear, justice, appetite, man, and God, interact.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As men’s habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude ... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.”
—Baruch (Benedict)