This Lent on Friday evenings I am offering a teaching series called “The Wonder of Prayer.” It explores key facets of the prayer life. This is the fifth and final session.

The audio of the talk is above. The two parts of this second session are

* Review of Prayer and its Characteristics

* Liturgical Prayer

* Personal Prayer Rule

What is Prayer?

Combining the doctrines of prayer by S. John of Damascus and Father Martin Thornton yields a composite definition of prayer:

Prayer is spiritual activity: our lifting up of the heart and mind to the living God – anything we do which is conditioned by conscious relationship with Him, a relationship which is continuous, whether or not it is recognized or articulated.

Person Prayer Rule

* Personal devotion daily, or most days.

* a personal routine of prayer, done in sequence or in some pattern

* ideally, something in the morning and something in the evening. if possible, something midday.

* according to the four characteristics of prayer

* often developed through discussion with the parish priest, within spiritual direction

* it can change and adapt according to the life and circumstances of the person

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