MEDITATION

(PERSONAL PRAYER)
 Magnificat
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exalts in God my Savior;
because He has looked upon His lowly handmaid.
Yes, from this day forth all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is His name,
and His mercy reaches from age to age
for those who fear Him.
He has shown the power of His arm.
He has routed the proud of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones
and exalted the lowly.
The hungry He has filled with good things,
the rich sent empty away.
He has come to the help of Israel His servant,
mindful of His mercy
-according to the promise He made to our ancestors-
of His mercy to Abraham
and to His descendants forever.”

Our Lady, Queen of Teams, pray for us.

 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
WHERE DOES MEDITATION COME FROM? 4
1. Roots in the Bible 4
2. Father Caffarel 5
3. The Great Saints 6

WHY MEDITATION? 8
1. To obey and to trust 8
2. Listening 10
3. Meeting the Lord 10

HOW TO MEDITATE? 11
1. Making time 11
2. How much time? 11
3. Setting 12
4. Introduction to Meditation 12
5. Content of Meditation 12
6. End of Meditation 13
7. Testimonials from Team members 13
8. Methods proposed by the great Saints 15

DIFFICULTIES 17
1. Finding time 17
2. Laziness and lack of desire to pray 17
3. Distractions and lack of concentration 17
4. Fear of silence 17
5. The feeling of sterility 17
6. Temptations of the evil one 18
7. Lack of perseverance 18
8. Ignorance of the fruits of meditation 18

THE FRUITS 19
1. Growth in love of God and neighbor 19
2. Listening to God 19
3. Marveling at the action of God in our lives 19
4. Growing serenely in peace 19
5. Understanding ourselves better 20
6. To better face the challenges of life 20
7. Deepening our communal prayer 20
8. Boosting the other Endeavors 21

CONCLUSION 22
KEY WORDS 23
FURTHER RESOURCES 24

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 INTRODUCTION

For Father Caffarel, «meditation is a face-to-face with God, a

heart-to-heart with God». As we will see, great leaders of the
Church have also defined meditation. It is an intimate relationship
of friendship, filial love, with God. This could be perhaps a
conversation with Him, or a simple glance of love to Him. We stand
in His presence, we contemplate Him. The Holy Spirit is the
interior Master of such a prayer.

We must ask God for the grace of meditation, with perseverance

and with humility. Humility is the foundation of prayer. God is vis-a-
vis the primary mover. Meditation is the work of God with the
cooperation of man and woman and not the other way around.

Meditation is also a journey. This is a permanent act of faith.

Thus, it follows that meditation is a fundamental endeavor.

The Charter of the Teams of our Lady recommends

encountering the Lord daily in silent prayer. This is not a rigid
rule; each person chooses what suits him or her best (when,
where, how). The most important thing in developing this deep
union with God is not the setting; it is perseverance and regularity.

Training the laity in regular prayer was an important challenge in

the life of Father Caffarel. This is why he created the «notebooks
concerning meditation», and why he led weeks of retreat called
«schools of meditation» in Troussures, France.

«Meditation is the secret of a happy, fruitful and full life. We

must feed ourselves in God through meditation before our
apostolic mission».
(Father Caffarel)

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I. Where does meditation come from?
1 - Roots in the Bible
Practical suggestion: these texts could be used to support meditation

1. The Old Testament 2. The New Testament

Prophets from the Old Testament Christian prayer is a covenant

prayed in anticipation. relationship between the Trinitarian God
and man.
As soon as God calls him, Abraham
leaves “as the Lord had told him” (Gen. God waits for us: “Behold, I stand at
12, 4): his heart obeys. Listening with the the door and knock; if anyone hears my
heart is essential to prayer. Abraham’s voice and opens the door, I will come
prayer expresses itself also through into him and eat with him and he with
actions: a man of silence, he builds, at me. » (Rev. 3: 20).
each resting place, an altar to the Lord.
When we turn to God, we discover that
Moses’s prayer is both a poignant He is waiting to embrace us, as the father
intercessory prayer and a contemplative welcomes his prodigal son (Luke 15, 20).
prayer. Here once again, God comes first. He desires to dwell in us. “Whoever loves
He calls Moses from the burning bush (Ex. me will keep my word, and my Father
3, 4). In fact, if “the God of Abraham, of will love him and we will come to him
Isaac and of Jacob calls” his servant and make our home with him.” (Jn. 14,
Moses, it is because he is the Living God. 23).
Moses “speaks” often, and at length, with
the Lord, climbing the mountain to hear The appropriate response to God’s call
Him and implore Him, coming down to the is to approach Him: “Let anyone who is
people to repeat to them the words of God thirsty, come to me and drink. Whoever
and to guide them. believes in me…” (Jn. 7, 37).

To pray is to turn freely, entirely, to

God. Prayer is an act of love that affects
the whole person. “And you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your
mind and with all your strength.” (Mk.
12, 30).

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 Man does not pray by himself. God the Spirit Himself intercedes for us.”
acts within him through the mediation of (Rom. 8, 26). “The one who remains in
the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit helps us in Me, and Me in him, will bear much fruit;
our weakness; we do not know what because without me, you cannot do any-
we ought to pray for; but thing.” (Jn.15, 5).

2 - Father Caffarel
Father Caffarel explains:

«Prayer is an act of the whole person: “I want”. It is a direction that I voluntarily

body, soul, mind, intellect, will and emotion. steer my “inner heart”, to the “new heart”,
The essence of prayer lies neither in the which I was saying to you during our first
stability of attention, neither in the “I feel” meeting. I want you to grasp what I
neither in the “I think”. It is in the adherence mean by “I want”, since that is the essential
of my will to the will of God in ».

Father Caffarel spoke at length about the need for “inner prayer”:

“getting there requires patience and calm. What God wants is that silence permeates our
soul so that we can communicate with the Father.

If we do not pray each day, it is not for lack of time, but maybe for lack of Love.
Father Caffarel says:

«The Christian who does not dedicate one day) to this interior meditation will re-
daily 10 to 15 mins of his time (1/96th of main infantile, or worse still, will regress»

Meditation is both reflection and internal prayer; it is a time of loving contemplation.

We seek harmony with God, with His love and His will. There must always be a calm time for God to
have the opportunity to speak to us.

“Prayer is not a matter of We are not capable of it by ourselves. The

expertise. All Christians practice of prayer is God’s work, God’s gift.
should experience this But it is also a work of man. Man must
longing, this relationship to cooperate with perseverance. It is a
God, person to person science, which thus has laws and
throughout their life. techniques. It is an art, like painting, like
playing the piano. And as in all the arts, we
cannot be content with only learning the
theory,we must learn by practicing”
 3 - The Great Saints
- Saint Augustine writes: «you made us - Saint John Vianney, Cure of Ars says:
for you, and our heart remains restless, «Man has a beautiful mission, to pray and
until it rests in you». The human heart is to love. You pray, you love: here is the
made for abundance, which comes from happiness of man on earth! When one has
its relationship with people. But only God a heart, pure and united to God, one feels
can fill the human heart. The means to a balm, a sweetness that intoxicates, and
extinguish this thirst for the infinite is a light that dazzles.
prayer. My children, you have a small heart, but
«Human beings need to encounter God in prayer enlarges it and renders it capable of
prayer because we are beggars before loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of heaven,
God». a conduit from paradise. It never leaves us
without sweetness».

- Saint Theresa of Avila, a deeply

- Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus has mystical Spanish nun, defines the term to
said «I felt that the only thing necessary pray as «a friendly exchange with God».
was to unite myself more and more to She interiorizes prayer, knowing that God
Jesus and the rest would be given to me resides at the center of the human soul:
be- sides. Mental prayer is, in my opinion, «to seek God internally… do not think that it
an intimate friendship vocation where one could be done either through acquired
often talks alone with that God, who, we knowledge or through our imagination…
know, loves us. The words in prayer are because the quest for God is based on the
not speeches but kindling that feeds the truth, which is in us. A human being must
fire of love. There is not much to do or to turn his/her soul into the «house» of
give, but rather receive and love much». Christ. »

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- Saint John of the Cross, is a Spanish entire truth, its nakedness, its sincerity, its
mystic, who conceptualized detachment in simplicity, and presented by you to Him,
connection with Eastern spiritualties. that is what prayer is».

He tells us: «God is God; it is the only

reality. We can find Him only within the
soul», a pathway accessible through love.

St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa de-

sire a prayer of silence, stillness,
experience of love in the depth of the
heart, rather than being satisfied with the
perception of prayer.

- Saint John-Paul II says in conclusion:

«Prayer is the first expression of the
interior truth of man, the first condition for
an authentic freedom of the spirit. It gives
sense to the entire life, at each moment, in
all circumstances. Only a prolonged
covenant with the
- Saint Ignatius of Loyola explains: «A Lord will be able to
friend is one who speaks to a friend, who transform each of
knows how to remain silent to listen to us internally into
him». His disciple».

- Blessed Charles of Foucauld defines:

« Prayer, this is a conversation with God;
this is a scream from your heart to God. It
therefore must be something absolutely
natural, absolutely authentic, the
expression of the depth of your heart: it is
not your lips that must be doing the
talking; it is not your mind that is your
volition. Your volition manifesting itself and
pouring itself out to your Father in its
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 II. Why MEDITATION?
We must pray because we are called to holiness (Gaudium and Spes, Paul VI) and because
the path to sainthood begins with prayer.

1 - To obey and to trust

Obedience and trust in God:

We obey the invitation to prayer, which (Catechism of the Catholic Church). We

stems from our faith in God. The root of pray to unclutter our lives of all that
the word to obey sheds light on its deep impedes our relationship with God.
meaning: “ob audire”, to know how to Meditation and life go together. Thus,
listen, or, as Saint Benedict said, to listen meditation suffers from that which unduly
attentively. Silence must be created in clutters our life. It inspires us to embrace a
order to hear what God tells us. Because simpler and more evangelical life. That is
“God, the Master, calls man”. the work of asceticism.

«A life without prayer is a life that ignores an essential dimension of existence. The
value of prayer lies in discovering, affirming and living the fact that everything has an
eternal dimension. »
(Dom Antoine Bloom,
Orthodox Bishop).

Humorous digression: “A small village suffered a drought for a long time. The
vicar asked the villagers to pray to God to bring rain. But, the day after, the vicar
was upset with them for their lack of faith. “Why were you upset when we came to
pray?” inquired the villagers. “Because you did not bring umbrellas with you”.

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 Asceticism: The w o r d frightens us if it keep it supple and disposed to the actions of
is misunderstood. From Greek origin, it the Holy Spirit, setting aside that which is a
means « exercise», similar to in sport. barrier to love, for that which is health and
People train their bodies so it can remain vigor for the soul. Such is the positive tar- get
supple and respond to the height of their of asceticism at the service of a loving
expectations. Christian asceticism aims at relationship with God.
the same goal for the spiritual person: to

Testimony:
«We greatly need to be closer to the Lord God, our Father. So, it happens that,
when we pray to the Lord, He fills us with strength and courage! He leads us
along paths, which we did not even know existed. We struggle to increase our
faith and it often happens that our prayer is very simply this: «Lord, invigorate our
heart and our life, with your light, your wisdom and your love». Often, we do not
know how to move forward, how to find the strength to pick ourselves back up
tomorrow, how to summon courage to face life in front of us. And the Lord tells us,
every one of us: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you! Have trust!”.

motivation to meditate. «During prayer I am

Obedience to the Movement of Teams fixed (adhered) with all my will, with all my
heart, to Christ», says Father Caffarel.
Of Our Lady (END):

END invites us to meditate to « encounter Teams couples strive to accept that

the Lord daily in silent prayer”. Willingness to challenge.
obey this rule may help us to find the

Teams Of Our Lady

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 2 - Listening

In this plunge into ourselves, we discover who we

There is no meditation without
really are. Not what others think or what we think
Listening. As early as the Old Testament,
of ourselves, but the man or woman that God
the relationship between man and God sees and loves. As we see through the loving
was characterized by listening: “Speak eyes of God, we can discover and welcome God’s
Lord, your servant is listening”. (1 Sam. plan for us and for our lives.
3,9).

Once more, Father Caffarel tells us: «What He desires is that silence settles in our
soul, to enable dialogue between the Father and His Son. Have faith; persevere in
meditation and Christ will pacify and bring to Him all your separate capabilities».

3 - Meeting the Lord

This beautiful hymn composed by is to say, an anthropological impulse. In his
Father Caffarel and inspired by a Tamil “Letter to an Unbeliever,” he advises his
prayer, calls us to intimate prayer: “Oh correspondent to address God in his own
You, who are at home in the depths of intimacy: “get within yourself and
my heart, let me meet you in the depths discover an impetus within you, which
of my heart”, that is to say by plunging is an implicit prayer”.
inside of myself, I find the Lord, who lives
there. He also said that Christian prayer is
powerful because it is reinforced by the
Time dedicated to meditation, action of Christ and that the baptized
“sacrificed” (in the high religious sense: participate in His divinity. As we all need
offered as a sacrifice of love and praise) is regular meals to nourish our bodies, so we
the symbol of a life that we want to be need regular prayer to nourish our souls.
entirely “consecrated” to God.
Prayer allows us to be in God as Saint
Father Caffarel taught us that prayer is a John tells us: “Remain in me as I remain in
necessity of our human condition, that you” (Jn. 15,4).

Testimonial:
«We pray because we need meditation. We need to talk with the Lord and above
all to listen to Him inside our heart. Meditation helps us, each of us, to be faithful
to the Lord, to endure difficult times a little better; it also helps us to not lose hope,
to achieve improvement».

To meditate, is to put into practice the proverb: «Blessed are those who think before
they act and who pray before they think».
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 III. How to meditate?
We do not learn how to meditate by reading a book, but by practicing it.

1 - Making time
Be regular: ideally always keep the
same schedule. Discipline is helped by
regularity. For many, the best time is in the
morning to start the day, not at night when
fatigue impedes meditation.

We can prepare in advance by choosing

a Word of God to serve as a support.

One does not meditate when one has

time, one schedules time to meditate

Testimonial:
«For me, the hardest part was having the discipline to choose a time and place
for meditation. I made my first attempts without real conviction, and with- out really
taking the time. It only resulted in frustration. During a team meeting, our spiritual
advisor told us every day he needed to reserve at least half an hour to meet God.
Otherwise he could not manage his workload. Our spiritual advisor is very busy,
constantly called upon, much more than me. So, it made me think. I decided that
the best time for me would be morning and the best location before the Blessed
Sacrament. It was not easy,some days I pray later in the day, even if it is less
effective because of my fatigue. It has become an essential part of my day».

2 - How much time?

duration, it is important to keep to the
In Rome in 1979, couples were exhorted allotted time. We must fight against all
to dedicate at least a modest minimum time temptations to shorten it either because
of 10 minutes every day. Like appetite, there is something more urgent to do, or
which results in eating, the length of the because we are bored, or because we
meditation increases with practice to experience sterility.
exceed that minimum. Whatever the
We must have the firm determination to be faithful and to persevere.

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 3- Setting
The place can be a quiet place in our booklet by Father Caffarel «the Body and
home, with a statue, an icon, a candle. It can Prayer».
be in a church or chapel, in the countryside,
on public transport or even during a time of
waiting. Irrespective of the place, a fixed
location is required.

Posture: Put your body in a deferential,

but not uncomfortable position, that
expresses your filial relationship to God:
standing, kneeling, sitting. You can refer to the

4 - Introduction of meditation
Put yourself in the presence of God: the Holy Spirit”, or an invocation to the Holy
slowly make a sign of the cross, and say a Spirit, saying simply “Here I am”.
short prayer with mindfulness, such as «You who are present in the depths of
“Glory be to God, and to the Son and to my heart » as prayed Father Caffarel.

5 - Content of meditation
Simply talk to God, to Christ, as your Make an effort to be silent so you can
father or your brother, like a child who listen to God who speaks to you. Open your
needs to talk with his father every day, to heart to God so He can cultivate it deeply
be accountable to him, to ask him for help with His Love and His Word. Since
and advice. Confide in Him. Ask him for meditation is essentially a relationship of
more faith, a special grace, more love in faith, it is necessary to keep the
perseverance in meditation... focus of our “heart” on God who is there,
deep within ourselves, who loves us and
There exists a very strong connection wants to communicate with us. Delivering
with Lectio Divina: Reading the Word of to us His commands.
God can be an important part of
meditation, that itself becomes a starting We can also rely on the texts of Father
point. Caffarel or those of great mystics like
Saint Teresa, Saint John of the Cross...
God says to us: “My son, give me your
heart!” Respond to Him with acts of Do not say nor think: «My meditation
faith and love: let us reply with brief is bad». Father Caffarel says:
sentences or prayers that gradually induce «Lord, I want from this meditation exactly
a sense of peace and stillness within us. what You want from it».

And above all listen and be quiet!

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 6 - End of meditation
Finish with a prayer, such as the Our we try to accomplish it concretely in our
Father. lives.

Although meditation ends, prayer One can repeat a phrase from the
should not be completely finished. reading, which aides our meditation, writing
Meditation should lead to practical it down to re-read during the day, like a buoy
resolutions: we have perceived what the lifting us above our absorbing tasks and
Lord expects of us.With the help of His giving them their true meaning.
grace,

7 - Testimonials from Team members

«I discovered the practice of Christian meditation, where the constant repetition
of a “mantra” in the silence of my heart and the focus on the only sound in my
head of the four syllables “ma-ra-na-tha“(Come, Lord Jesus), allowed me to
gradually ignore distracting thoughts and concentrate my mind on the sound of
the syllables. Distractions are always there, but they have less control over my
thoughts».

Testimonials from a couple: « Our journeys of faith are very different from each
other and also our practice of meditation».

Him: «Myself, I like to start my meditation with a traditional period of prayer,

because I have difficulties in concentrating and isolating myself from external
distractions. I recite the rosary, asking for the intercession of Our Lady with her
Son. This repetition of prayer enables me to move gradually towards a more
spontaneous phase. Sometimes it happens that during that time, my mind
wanders, “like a butterfly in a field of flowers that jumps from flower to flower “...
But it can be a way to free myself, little by little, from the external hubbub, and
focus on the main objective – approaching God. Then, reading the Bible has a
different meaning for me and sometimes allows me to discover a message that
God wants to pass on to me».

Her: « I think everyone has their own way of getting closer to God, to success-
fully enter into dialogue with Him, sometimes due to those around us. I can meet
Jesus in others, as Jesus himself tells us: “I was naked and you clothed me; I
was thirsty and you gave me drink ...”

I can then see in the other the true face of Christ (because otherwise, as Pope
Francis said, it would be nothing other than philanthropy).

My prayer is a solitary encounter with God. I can manage to do this, often at

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night in the silent house. I remain alone with images of Jesus and Mary arranged
on our small “altar” with the Bible. And I talk at length with Him. In a spontaneous
prayer that springs from my heart, often to thank Him for the day that has
passed, I praise Him for all the wonders He has done. And I ask Mary to continue
to intercede with her son Jesus to guide our family, our children. We sometimes
hold long conversations, where I hand over many of my worries into the hands of
Jesus. I also pass long moments in silence, trying to perceive what Jesus
specifically wants to tell me. Or I try to imagine what he would do if he were in my
place...

I may also pray for someone, begging Jesus to do what is best for this person.
After these minutes of praise, of thanks and intentions, I ask God to help me
correct my faults and understand what He really wants from me...

Before I read and meditate on a short passage from the Bible, I ask the Lord to
send me His Holy Spirit so that I can really understand what he wants to tell me
in this particular text. Previously I opened the Bible at random and read a
passage. Now I read the Gospel of the day.

Sometimes, I continue on with the Rosary in honor and glory of Our Lady,
thinking particularly about the Holy Father and our priests.

This is a prayer scheme that I discovered draws me closer to God, that gives me
immense inner peace and a feeling of great closeness to God.

There have been times in my life when it was more difficult for me to pray due to
a great sterility, and I put off beginning meditation ...There were moments of
confusion because I was missing moments of intimacy with the Lord.

But I can give you my testimony about the value of these precious moments in
our day, when peace comes over us and fills our heart, through the power of
intimacy with God. For me, these moments of meditation are fundamental to
making a better start to the following day!

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 8 - Methods proposed by the great Saints
Method of Saint Ignatius of Loyola Method of Saint Francis de Sales

1 – Meditate; place yourself in God’s 1 - Put yourself in God’s presence and

presence (kneeling, sign of the ask Him for His help.
cross...). Ask the Lord that our prayer 2- Preparatory prayer: Worship God, ask
be directed towards His service and His for the grace to serve and worship
praise. during meditation, invoking your
2 – Read a Gospel text and imagine the guardian angel and the saints. Being
scene. Ask the Lord for grace in relation obedient to God’s will, retain a sense of
to the Gospel scene we contemplate joy, even if there are distractions
3 – Re-live the Gospel episode, meditate 3 - Offer in your imagination an episode
on it. Understanding it, immersing one- from the life of Christ as if you were
self in it and assimilating it, drawing witnessing it.
practical conclusions in order to shape 4 - Meditate, which increases appropriate
our life to those. This meditation will actions (« affections »): love of God
awaken in us what St. Ignatius called and neighbor, a longing for heaven and
“affections”: increase of faith, of hope glory, imitation of the life of our Lord,
and of charity, feelings of adoration, of compassion, wonder, fear of God, trust
admiration, of praise and of thanks- in his goodness and mercy...
giving, of acts of self-offering, of 5 - Make resolutions and practice them
confidence, of shame and of repentance. immediately.
4 - Conclude with a dialogue, that is to say, a 6 - Conclusion: thanksgiving, offering to
conversation with Christ: confidences, share (our “affections” and our
petitions for favor, admissions of fault, resolutions), supplication. Ask for the
doubts, difficulties, hopes, plans, and inter- cession of the Virgin Mary, the
resolutions. Entreat His advice, His angels and the saints. Say an Our
comfort, and His strength. Father.
5 - Finish with the Our Father. 7- After meditation, receive a «spiritual
6 - Consider how your prayer went. Give bouquet*», then move on without fuss
thanks, repent if there were deficiencies, to the occupations of everyday life, by
make resolutions for the future, make a applying the resolutions you made.
note of any inspirations received.

* The spiritual bouquet of Saint Francis de Sales: « Leaving a

beautiful garden, we often want to take some pretty flowers that we
would keep on our table all day. We can do the same. To carry away
from our meditation a few ideas that will come back
to mind and will perfume our day».

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 Method of Saint Alphonse-Marie of Carmelite method
Liguori

1 – Be silent, externally and internally. 1 - Approach God with humility and

Make an act of faith in God’s presence. confidence. Put yourself in God’s
Make an act of humility. Request insight presence, to be attentive to the
for a fruitful meditation. Add an presence of the Trinity in our soul,
invocation: «Glory be to the Father and received at baptism.
to the Son ... «, «Hail Mary ... «, prayer 2 - Represent the mystery upon which
to a saint ... we want to meditate through
2 - Meditate on a text from the Bible or imagination or by reading a story in the
other text. Meditate on it slowly. Bible.
3 - «Raise your heart to God and offer 3 - Meditate to comprehend and love the
Him good actions of humility, trust, Lord. Saint Teresa of Avila said, «
gratitude, but especially contrition and meditation, it is not much thinking, but
love. much loving ».
4 - «Add requests for grace with humility 4 – Dialogue with God: fix our gaze and
and trust: ask for insights, patience, our heart on the meditated mystery.
perseverance, and above all the gift of Express our love for God by admiration,
His holy love»... praise, self-offering, and conformity to
5 - Make practical resolutions for your His will ... Peaceful dialogue interrupted
conversion and sanctification. Continue by silences to listen to God, to receive
to keep this resolution until significant His graces. Aim to accomplish the will
progress has been made. of the Lord always and in all things.
6 - Conclusion: Thank God, make a 5 - Conclusion: thanksgiving, offering of
commitment to keep the resolutions ourselves and the efforts we want to
made, ask the Lord to help you and make with His grace and intercession.
entrust your brethren to Him. Finish One can heed what has been
with the experienced and been discovered
«Our Father» and «Hail Mary»
7 - After meditating, collect a «spiritual
bouquet», as Saint Francis de Sales
says

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 IV. DIFFICULTIES

1 - Finding time
In our daily busy lives, it is easy to forget the importance of prayer. As with sustainable
conjugal love, prayer is a decision rather than a feeling.

2 - Laziness and lack of desire to pray

Our relationship with God must be active and not passive. God is always ready to
welcome us with open arms, but it is for us to go to Him to receive this welcome, as in the
parable of the Prodigal Son.

3 - Distractions and lack of concentration

Our heads are filled with thoughts and it is difficult to control them. Saint Theresa of
Avila tells us that «it is very important not to be afraid of our own thoughts».

Father Caffarel says: « The value of meditation is not measured by the constancy of
attention. Prayer can be good without that stability; this is not essential».
Saint Francis de Sales also comforts us: «If the heart wanders or is distracted,
bring it back sweetly and put it tenderly in the presence of its Master. And even if you do
nothing during the time other than to bring your heart and place it in the presence of Our
Lord, even though it drifted off again whenever you brought it back, your time would have
been well spent».

4 - Fear of silence
We live in a world filled with noise. We are not used to silence, which can be daunting.
Being alone with ourselves can make us fearful. However, it is essential to be quiet to
hear God speaking to us in the silence of our hearts.

Saint Theresa of Avila says: «It would be crazy to think that we can enter Heaven
without going inside ourselves».

5 - The feeling of sterility

Once a discipline of daily prayer is who have had this experience, persevered
established, it may be that we encounter until God rewarded their perseverance.
periods of sterility, when God seems This can be a test of faithfulness to our
distant. These periods are inevitable; they prayer life
should not discourage us. All the great
mystics,

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 6 - Temptations of the evil one
Our prayer frustrates the evil one, undoubtedly, because it is an encounter
with God. So, to get us away from God, he uses all kinds of temptations, of
which the Desert Fathers were very well aware.

7 - Lack of perseverance
Sometimes we are tempted to give up. We may think that we are not made for this kind of
prayer and feel we waste our time. Father Caffarel says: «Persevere in prayer and Christ
will calm you and focus your mind on Himself as a shepherd playing the flute to gather his
flock».

8 - Ignorance of the fruits of meditation

Meditation adds a dimension to our lives that we
can know only by living it personally. We can listen
to others talk about the fruits they received from
their meditation and be encouraged with these
words. «Prayer and life are completely
inseparable: a life without prayer is a life that
does not know an essential dimension of life, a
life that is happy only with what is visible, with
a physical proximity by which we can- not
discover the immensity and eternity of our
destiny. The value of prayer is to discover, affirm
and experience that everything has an eternal
dimension» (Dom Antoine Bloom, Orthodox
bishop for the young in Taizé).

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 V. THE FRUITS

1 - Grow in the love of God and neighbor

When we meet God in prayer, we seek The relationship with God has two
to know Him better and love Him more. phases: that of privacy (meditation) and
Father Caffarel said «prayer is an active that of action (living according to God’s
search for knowledge of Christ». will). The two inform and feed each other.
Meditation strengthens our will to respond
This growth in the love of God leads us to the love of God for us; action is
inevitably, to a greater love for our expressed as a very concrete love of our
neighbor. The way we treat our neighbor neighbor
is, as St. Teresa of Avila said, the true
measure of our love of God.

2 - Listening to God
God speaks to us through the us regularly in our daily lives, but we do
situations that we experience, through the not always manage to hear Him. Spending
reading of the Word of God, through what time in His presence is a way of «being
others say regarding us. God speaks to attentive to Him».

3 - Marveling at the action of God in our lives

Contemplating God, we become aware
of His greatness, His majesty and His
power. We can then, with the Psalmist,
exclaim in praise and worship: “The
heavens declare the glory of God and the
firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Ps
19).

“O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is your name throughout the world!” (Ps 8).

4 - Growing serenely in peace

Remaining still and in silence before inner joy. We await this moment with
God engenders a sense of calm and impatience.
peace, which, over time, turns into a deep

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Testimony:
The World Community for Christian Meditation teaches prayer for children in
primary school: only 2 or 3 minutes of meditation at first, eyes closed, slowly
repeating the mantra « ma-ra-na–tha » (Come, Lord Jesus). Then, they increase
the time of daily meditation, 1 minute per year of age of the children. This
practice was held a class at a time, for staff and children. Schools, where daily
meditation was practiced for some time, reported very positive results. The
children are calmer, their concentration improves, they are nicer to each other,
less aggressive on the playground and even request a longer time for meditation.

5 - Understanding ourselves better

In our personal encounter with God, we us and understand how much He loves us despite
slowly learn to see ourselves as He sees all our faults and weaknesses

«Seeing ourselves through the loving eyes of God, we can discover and welcome
God’s plan for us and for our lives. We give thanks for the wonders that He has made us.
We also discover the areas where we need transformation. And on returning from our
introspection, we bring with us the decision to change and how to effect it ». (From the
reflections on the Endeavors and the Sharing)

6 - To better face the challenges of life

Faced with the difficulties of life, we can we can experience the presence of God
let ourselves be overwhelmed and beside us.Saint Paul tells us that nothing
struggle to continue. Remaining faithful to can separate us from the love of God:
our daily prayer, we can step back and

«What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction, or hardship? Can
persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ... But in all these things we are
more than conquerors through the one who has loved us ». (Rm. 8, 35, 37)

Meister Eckhart, the 13th century German theologian, wrote

« For a friend of God, suffering and unexpected disasters can bear fruit because
everything, including sin, contributes to good ».

7 - Deepening our communal prayer

The more couples practice meditation, this encounter in community. We can
the richer and more profound the prayer in recognize more easily the presence of
the team will be. The more we are God who speaks to us in the prayer of
“trained” to a personal encounter with the others. The silence will be deeper and the
Lord, the more naturally we experience words will be simpler.

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 8 - Boosting the other Endeavors
Personal prayer is of utmost awareness of the aspects of our lives to
importance because it awakens and improve, pray more deeply with our
develops the inner life. By meeting with spouse, interact more openly during the
Christ daily in prayer, we can meditate on sit-down and more profoundly experience
the Word of God, choose a rule of life with our annual retreat
greater

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 CONCLUSION
Meditation is breath to the Christian. It is a fundamental endeavor.

Meditation is the dedication of time to God. It is a personal and

essential act of love, which is the best means of entering into
communication with Him. Meditation is a dialogue with God where
we listen to Him more than we speak with Him.

There is no single way to meditate. Several examples have been

given so that each of us can enrich our own experience, or, to put
it simply, to motivate the desire to live a life of meditation. Training
is often necessary, to become accustomed to this time of intimacy
with our Creator.

Meditation leads us to peace and happiness. It allows us to see

our life and our relationships with the perspective of God.

Many say that they do not know how to meditate, but there is no
good or a bad meditation, the important thing is to open your heart
to enter a relationship with God.

Spiritual appetite comes with praying!

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 KEY WORDS

Conversation, contemplation,
friendship, harmony,
encounter, regularity,
patience, intimacy, will,
perseverance, meditation,
kindness, respect, adoration,
trust, praise, supplication,
intercession, thanksgiving,
asking for forgiveness.

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 FURTHER RESOURCES
Bibliography for English speakers:

“Contemplative Prayer” - Thomas Merton, Published by Darton

Longman and Todd

“Using the Jesus Prayer” (Steps to a simpler Christian Life) – John

Twistleton, Published by Bible Reading Fellowship

“Prayer” (Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God), Timothy

Keller, Published by Hodder and Stoughton

“With Open Hands” – Henri Nouwen, published by Ave

Maria Press “Sister Wendy on Prayer” – Sr Wendy

Beckett, Published by Continuum

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 Teams of Our Lady
United States Super Region
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