A Few Tips on Prayer

1. Set aside a moment each day for personal prayer at a fixed time. Be committed to observing this time of prayer and be faithful to it.

2. During prayer, make an act of faith, place yourself in God’s presence: ‘Lord, I know that you are here; you love me’.

3. Pray to the Holy Spirit.

4. With honesty and sincerity, speak to him as you would to a friend: without any formalities. Thérèse of Avila said: ‘To pray is to meet frequently the One by whom I know I am loved: God.’ Tell him everything; chat, joke, laugh, adore him, praise him, ask him for whatever you want, complain, ask for forgiveness, advice or strength; pray for others, and so on. All this without always worrying about the order in which the different forms of prayer are used.

5. Listen to what He says. A word or a teaching may come back to mind and make an impression on you; you can regard this as coming from God and pray about it. Read a passage from Scripture and meditate on it. Sometimes re-read a teaching. As you listen, something strikes you; you feel compelled to act on it to please God. It is like a resolution: for example:

· ‘Pray a lot’.

· ‘Be loving today’,

· ‘Make an effort to please Jesus’

· ‘Start a new life with Jesus’, etc.”

· It’s like being given an exercise to do.

6. Ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit so that you can live out what God has asked of you.

7. As far as possible, remind yourself of this regularly throughout the day; let it be part of your prayer: to help members, in the exercises on the worksheet, you will notice that you will frequently see the phrase: ‘repeat regularly today…’.

8. As you begin another prayer, reflect on whether you have lived out your resolution.

9. If you experience distractions, pray them away.

10. If you do not feel moved to pray, before you begin, read some older teachings, homilies, prayer sheets or books about the saints.

False prophets

If someone does not pray properly yet still speaks constantly of God, they become like a false prophet. False prophets prophesied without having been sent and without having heard the Word of God. ‘These prophets prophesied lies in my name. I did not send them; I did not speak to them’ (Jer 14:14). ‘False prophets follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. They say, “A prophecy from the Lord,” when I have not spoken to them.’ ‘I did not send these prophets; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.’ God speaks to us through his Word. In prayer, we listen to the Word of God. Hence the need to meditate on the Word of God whilst praying. An evangeliser is expected to pray in order to share the Word of God with others as God intends.

Henri Bayemi

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