Teach Us to Pray

Day 12 - When To Use Meditation, When To Use Contemplation

Welcome to Day 12 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with Jeremiah 18:1-6.
As we wrap up our time together, we recall these two helpful forms of prayer: meditation and contemplation. Another question arises, "When should I use one and when the other?" The short answer is: yes! :)
This is the last day of Teach Us to Pray lessons but we hope you'll continue praying! Here are some suggested Scriptures to feed you in your prayer: https://goSFA.us/moreprayer

Day 11 - Moving Forward, Managing Expectations

Welcome to Day 11 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with Philippians 3:7-11.
As we move forward in prayer, we can be tempted at times to believe that prayer will look a certain way or feel a certain way. If those expectations go unfulfilled we may wonder if we're doing it right or if it's even worth it.

Day 10 - Is My Experience from God?

Welcome to Day 10 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with John 3:22-30.
Practicing contemplation which is this unique prayer of the imagination, we may at times wonder, "Is this experience from God or just from me?" This is a valid and important question. In today's audio lesson, we identify some guardrails that will help us know when we can trust our prayer.

Day 9 - Examples of Ignatian Contemplation

Welcome to Day 9 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with Mark 10:46-52.
As we enter into the practice of contemplation, the experience of others can again prove helpful to us. How others have used contemplation or experienced contemplation can give us an imagination for what this prayer can look like in our own life.

Day 8 - Ignatian Contemplation

Welcome to Day 8 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with Luke 19:1-10.
St. Ignatius offers us two methods for entering into prayer. One is meditation, the other is contemplation. In contemplation we make use of our imagination to enter into prayer. The imagination gives us the ability to be present to something that is not physically before us.

Day 7 - Repetition in Prayer

Welcome to Day 7 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with Psalm 103:1-18 or you might consider repeating a previous period of prayer after listening to the audio lesson below.
Today we'll explore repetition. In repetition, we return to a previous period of prayer to be even more attentive to the graces God gave us in that time.

Day 6 - In Times of Desolation Never Make a Change

Welcome to Day 6 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with 1 Peter 5:8-11.
In addition to his enlightening lessons on prayer, St. Ignatius of Loyola was also known for something called the Rules for Discernment. These rules help us know when a prompting is from God and when it is from the Enemy. They can be extraordinarily insightful!

Day 5 - Examples of Ignatian Meditation

Welcome to Day 5 of Teach Us to Pray!
Today let's spend our 15 minutes praying with John 10:1-15.
As you practice the art of meditation, you may find the technique elusive. This is where the experiences of others can come in handy. In the audio lesson below we'll explore some examples of meditation in order to help you enter more deeply and readily into this form of prayer.