prayerhandout

Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Welcome!

Meeting Topic:

Prayer – Key to the New Evangelization

Presenter:

Fr. Frank DeSiano, CSP

Date:

14 May 2013 3:00 pm ET

Audio:

Available only through internet (computer speakers or headset)

Technical difficulties call: 800 800--237237-5515

Devotion, Prayer and Catholic Life Today Necessary for Evangelization

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.

And enkindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.

And you shall renew the face of the earth.

Let Us Pray O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, instructed the hearts of your faithful, grant by that same Spirit we too may know what is right and always rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Catholic Prayer 1950s • Centered on the lives of the saints • Used popular devotions such as the Rosary, Litanies

• Involved I l d devotions d ti att Church Ch h around d the Eucharist Eucharist— —40 Hours and Benediction • Encouraged morning and evening prayer

Bless me Father, I have sinned…. sinned I missed my morning prayers 5 times…..

How Much Prayer in our Homes?

• Perhaps prayer at Mealtime • The “traveling Virgin” • Mothers hearing children say prayers at night • Devotional objects in the home— home —statues, candles, missals, perhaps a Bible • Some Seniors going through a popular, well well--used prayer book

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Vatican II • Encouraged prayer and

actions as part of a personal initiative (e.g., no meat on Friday) • Concentrated on the E h i t as th Eucharist the “summit” “ it” off Catholic prayer experience • Inadvertently caused a move away from popular devotions • Inadvertently caused a vacuum of daily Catholic experience of prayer

Popular Piety “[Popular piety] manifests a thirst for God which only the simple and poor can know. It makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice…. sacrifice It invoves an acute awareness of profound attributes of God…. It engenders interior attitudes rarely observed to the same degree elsewhere….”

On Evangelization in the Modern World (48)

What a Cost!

• Catholic sense of religion is almost

entirely around the parish • Children grow up with “faith” felt as “something g I do elsewhere” • Parents unaware of one of the key ways to bring their children into a life of faith • Children grow up without relating their faith to daily life.

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Prayer The Lord’s Prayer

1)Affirmation of God and

our radical di l need d for f God G d 2)Expression of the needs we have— have—food, mercy, protection, perseverance

God • Father Father— —generous and loving • Hallowed Hallowed— —the “special One” in our lives

• Kingdom Ki d Kingdom— —bringing b i i our existence i t iinto t alignment with divine Love

Opening Prayer opens us up to God— God—to a dimension of reality deeper than everyday perception— perception —a dimension of meaning, meaning connection, vision, creativity, and love.

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Opening Prayer is the most ready way to begin encountering the divine; without prayer, God becomes aloof, remote, impersonal, hard to identify.

“Lit”

Experience of Mary Karr of the University of Syracuse

Elements of Prayer • Internal Internal— —the sense of personal

connection with God, almost as if “I go out of myself” which the mystics embody most of all • External External— —the bodily gestures, and communal contacts, to make prayer visible and palpable

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Not Enemies

Internal—External Internal— These are not adversaries, but rather work together to support and give meaning to each other

Internal We need deep and persistent internal prayer in order to experience the conversion and commitment at the heart of our relationship with God. God

External

We need external expressions of prayer to support our internal growth, to give rhythm and form to our prayer, to join with others in prayer, and to monitor the reality of prayer.

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Persistence

The widow who pestered the judge!

(Luke 18:118:1-8)

Recovering Prayer • Example of Islam • Emergence of forms of

popular devotion, particularly p y Eucharistic Adoration • Movements like Cursillo, Cursillo, Charismatic, campus retreats • New devotions like “Divine Mercy”

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Obstacles • We think of prayer as “magic” rather than relationship with God • We engage in a “quid pro quo” attitude in prayer • We are inconsistent in prayer, starting and stopping • We are too occupied with “things” to get behind “things” to God

Scripture • Helps us “name” the • • • •

un-nameable unBrings us into conversation with God Brings us to points of decisions with God Brings us to conversion Brings us to personal relationship

Scripture How often is our prayer really something that springs from an element of the Scriptures? p

St. Augustine: the “word” helps us see the meaning of the “sacrament”

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Scripture

We can think of Scripture as the “software code” for the internal dimensions of prayer.

Getting into Scripture Our daily lectionary The Sunday readings Scriptural rosary Material in our bulletins Material in the homework of “children” • Material on our websites

• • • • •

Objective

We have to get Catholics more comfortable with Scripture so they can use it more actively in their personal reflection, and see it more clearly in all the other dimensions of Catholic life.

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Personal Prayer • One’s personal preference • • • •

and style Building upon that, expanding it With a regular discipline Mainly focused on God With both internal and external dimensions of prayer at work

Family Prayer • A form and style that makes sense for the family

• Done regularly g y as part p of a family’s y gathering

• Intergenerational with different

ages/experiences influencing each other • Bringing some elements of church experience into the home

Home

• • • • •

Times Places Images Connections— Connections —to people and events Models (saints)

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Group Prayer

Small groups Expressing p g discipleship p p Supporting each other Enriching each other’s experiences of prayer • Sustaining commitment

• • • •

Personal--Communal Personal

What happens in Liturgy has only more meaning i when h it is i reinforced i f d by personal prayer.

Types of Prayer • Liturgical: expressing the community’s participation in the Paschal Mystery

• Contemplative: quiet presence and beholding

• Meditative: quiet association between

our experiences and thoughts with scriptural images • Repetitive: forms of prayer that produce a different “rhythm” within and between people

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Modes of Prayer • Adoration: affirmation of God for God’s glory, putting God at the center of our attention • Petition: turning to God for the fundamentals that we need for our lives, acknowledging our lowliness and need

Parish Challenge • Calling Catholics to daily prayer • Providing Catholics with resources for daily prayer • Organizing for small scripture sharing and prayer • Fostering retreat experience in and beyond the parish

Parish Challenge • Increasing devotions and opportunities for prayer

• Preaching on prayer, having

witnesses talk about prayer • Starting prayer initiative for families in Religious Education and Catholic Schools

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

Prayer Prayer is one of our top Evangelizing agenda items in the Church today! y

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Year of Faith Webinar Prayer Rev. Frank DeSiano, CSP

14 May 2013 Paulist Evangelization Ministries

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Up Next…

Check out the schedule at www.PEMDC.org/YearOfFaith

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