Mental Prayer: Friendship with God

This morning, I walked in and knelt down in the dark parish church. As I was trying to pray, I found a few others running about the parish or flipping through the pages of the Liturgy of the Hours. I prayed for 30 minutes, meditating on and then speaking to our Father in heaven about the Gospel of reading of the day. The Holy Mass begins and after a dramatic and encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist, I knelt down to pray a thanksgiving after Mass.

As I knelt down to say thanks, I felt the breeze of those who were scurrying by me to go pray before the tabernacle for the next 30 minutes the beautiful prayers of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Rosary. As Catholics, we are really good with vocal prayers like the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or praying all the prayers on the back of holy cards. We memorize prayers and say them with great fervor. And these prayers are powerful, especially since they are endorsed by the Church. I pray the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet daily and still I find a desperate need for personal and quiet time with our Lord, speaking to Him as a friend.

The type of prayer I am speaking of is what many of the saints have called "Mental Prayer." St Teresa of Avila said, "Mental Prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friend; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us." We see Moses approaching God in this way, "The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." (Exodus 33:11) And when our Lord says, "No longer do I call you servants...I have called you friends." (John 15:15)

Friendship with God is necessary for the Christian Life, but how do we go about praying in this way. Here is a simple method to help with you pursuing friendship with God

1) Find a good place to prayer - This could be a prayer corner in your room, but the best place to pray is in the church before the Blessed Sacrament
2) Recognize God's Presence - This can best be done by making some sort of act of faith
3) Read a spiritual passage - The best would be the Gospels or other sections of the Bible.
4) Put yourself in the scene
5) Speak to God about what you experience in your prayer - This is the most important part. This is the actually Conversation with Christ!
6) Say a prayer asking for mercy for your weaknesses and sins (this could also be done at the beginning...humility is a good thing!)
7) Make a concrete resolution and write it down!

Now, this is only a method. Prayer could be as simple as walking in and knelling before Our Lord and just looking at him and allowing him to look back at you, this simple glance of love could be worth a million words. There are many more methods by great saints such at St Benedict and St Ignatius. And if you are still struggling to find this friendship with God take the advice of St Josemaria Escriva, "You don't know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, "Lord, I don't know how to pray!" you can be sure you've already begun."

Amen!