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Prayer

Augustine is a saint from around 400AD whose life story speaks as loudly as his great theological works. On the first page of his profound book ‘Confessions of a Sinner’, he says to God "You have made us for Yourself .....and our hearts are ever restless until they rest in You." St. Augustine is patron saint of theologians as well as patron saint of brewers, printers, and sore eyes!

Resting,connecting, praising, being, talking, worshipping, listening, adoring and encountering God. Call it what you will - prayer is where we find the nourishment for our whole life as Christians. It is through prayer that our restless hearts find rest in God.

And simply put, this prayer corner is designed to help you in that. We're planning to have this section all developed soon after World Youth Day. It will be stuffed full with everything from the basics of prayer, a weekly focus on different forms of Catholic prayer, different stages of prayer, FAQs, recommended books, articles and other resources.

Of course, there is no magic formula to prayer - you just have to give it a go and be sensitive to voice of God.

Our lives are filled with distractions and it can be difficult to sense the God . Many voices shout to us from many different directions. God is at work in the world and our job is to respond by sensing this work in the midst of distractions. Prayer is sensing God at work in the world, in us and in those around us.

See the Reflections button below for our fantastic feature of reflections on the daily readings written by Catholics from around New Zealand.

Prayer by ourselves or with other people always involves Gathering, Listening, Responding and Going out….

Encounter :: Adore :: Reflect :: Listen

By yourself or online

When praying by yourself try to take time to:
Gather your thoughts – find a quiet space and try to be in silence for a time.
Listen to God – through scripture, music, song…find a way that suits you. Some of the sites on the right may help but maybe just reflect on some questions like: How do you hear God’s voice in your life? Why do you think it is sometimes difficult to hear God’s Voice? Why is it important to look for and listen to God’s Spirit?
Respond – with structured prayer, a formal prayer you know or just repeating a phrasse that has struck you from your listening.
Go out – prayer is where we find the nourishment for our whole life as Christians, decide to do something different because of your prayer. Write this down for reference and to look back on your development.

With your friends

When praying with others the same thing applies!
Gather - with others and spend time getting attentive.
Listen – maybe to the favorite scripture of one of the group, the Gospel for the Day or quotes by someone who the group thinks was a good example in prayer and life.
Respond – by some action. In Mass we respond to the scripures by celebrating the continued presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In other prayer settings we often pray for those in need, or share stories of God’s action in our lives.
Go out - commit as a group to some action and use a prayer of blessing.

With the Church

Yep, you guessed it – the Church follows the ancient formula in all its liturgy. Here we’ll focus on the celebration of Eucharist, the Mass.
Gather – Opening Hymn, Sign of the Cross, welcome, opening prayer penitential rite…
Listen – The Liturgy of the Word – Readings from the Scriptures, (Old and New Testaments, Psalms, the Gospel) Prayers of the faithful..etc
Respond – The Liturgy of Eucharist – Presentation of Gifts, the Eucharistic Prayer, the Great Amen, the Lord's Prayer, the Lamb of God…it just keeps getting better!
Go out - The word Mass comes from the Latin word missa (dismissal), a word used in the concluding formula of Mass in Latin: "Ite, missa est" ("Go; it is the dismissal"). We are sent out to sense God at work in the world, in us, in those around us and help others do the same.

Our Top Links List

Here's just a few suggestions for prayer...

Prayer Resources

The website of the NZ Catholic Bishops' Conference, catholic.org.nz, has a page on the theme Relating to God: liturgy, prayer, spirituality. Many if the links of this page lead on to other sites that assist with prayer and liturgy.

FaithCentral is designed to supoort the New Zealand Religious Education Cirriculum. FaithCentral’s Chapel section has a range of Prayer Resources, Readings of the Day, Informal Prayers, Formal Prayers and information.

EWTN - A Poor Clare nun, who knew little of the world of technology and communication known as Mother M. Angelica built her own TV studio on monastery property in the USA, which today is home to Eternal Word Television Network – EWTN has a Prayer & Devotions section.

Online Prayer

Sacred Space is a daily meditation site. You can spend time reflecting on the words of the day’s scripture utlising their day by day prayer resource.

Pray as you go is a prayer site with multimedia downloads & podcasts of prayer exercises and reflections. Visit the site to get daily prayer for your mp3 prayer.

Church Resources is an Australian website set up to facilitate Church participation in and contribution to the era of online and digital communication for the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel and building community. Check out their resources for prayer with the daily readings.

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