Dr. Peter Kreeft: How To Begin Praying & Meditating

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By Peter Kreeft, Catholic Exchange, October 11, 2019

What is your favorite method of prayer?

Peter KreeftTo “pray without ceasing,” as St. Paul tells us (1 Thess. 5:17). To blend prayer with everything else. To make work a prayer. To overcome the separation between religion and life, the unfortu­nate idea we all have that “religion” is something different from life, something “pious” or “for religious people” or only for special times and places; something that ordinary sinners and cynics and selfish people dismiss.

The only way to do that — to overcome that superstition ― is with prayers that are unconscious rather than conscious, because it’s not psychologically possible to concentrate on praying while you are concentrating on solving math problems or catching a wave or swatting a fly. And when the prayers are conscious, and verbal, make them very short but frequent — such as “Yes, Lord” or “Fiat” or “Ad te, Domine” (offering it up). Or even a gesture: the Sign of the Cross if you are alone, or a salute (to help you remember who your Commanding Officer is) that does not look like a salute, and thus is not intrusive.

Your Morning Offering (of all your prayers, works, joys, and sufferings) establishes this; frequent reminders simply frequently remind you of it. You don’t have to be very pious or holy or contemplative or “religious” just to touch your forehead.

My second answer is praying Scripture, reading the Bible as prayer, conversing with God about it. It’s His love letter to you, after all. Like almost everybody else, my favorite Scriptures for prayer are the psalms, the prayer book God Himself gave us and the one Jesus and His disciples used, the one Jews have used for three thousand years. ….

Read more at  catholicexchange.com/dr-peter-kreeft-how-to-begin-praying-meditating