Prayer is the food of the soul. Just as our bodies need nourishment so, too, do our souls which, in hungering for God, need to be nourished by prayer. Much of the stress that many people experience today comes from the fact that they neglect to nourish their souls. Our bodies, minds and souls make up a unit. Our society is becoming more and more geared towards looking after the body and the mind, but unless some harmony is restored by including the soul and bringing these three elements together, it is inevitable that people will experience anxiety.
St Augustine said, ‘You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. ’ A lot of the anxiety that people experience in their busy lives could be alleviated if some time was given to prayer and the search for God. Jesus is the Source of Peace and we cannot hope to have peace within ourselves unless we draw life from that source.
Essentially, prayer is a conversation with God, speaking to Him who created and loves us and listening to what He has to say to us. In this book, we want to offer a few different methods of prayer that we feel are well suited to the type of lives we live today. Prayer is a relationship, so we all experience it differently. We have given examples of different types of prayer and hope that you will find an approach that suits you. Why not decide to spend ten or fifteen minutes a day in prayer? If you already do this, why not increase it to thirty minutes?
Prayer and holiness is for everyone in every situation. It is having our whole being in harmony with God’s plan for us. We will never achieve true happiness if we continue to search for it outside the very source of love, which we know is God Himself. Scripture tells us that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16).
As Saint John Paul II said in his letter on the dawn of the new millennium, why not ‘start afresh from Christ’ ? You won’t regret it!
O God,
I pray that I may know You and love You
So as eternally to rejoice in You.
And if, in the present life, I cannot do so fully,
Grant that my love and knowledge may at least grow on earth
That my joy may be fully in Heaven:
A joy expected here and there fulfilled.
O Lord our Father,
You counselled or rather commanded through Your Son,
That we ask for this fullness of joy, and You promised to grant it.
I ask of You, O Lord, that which, through Your Wonder-Counsellor,
You encouraged us to ask and promised to grant:
That our joy may be full!
Let my mind meditate on this joy, my tongue speak of it,
My heart desire it, my words extol it,
My soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it,
My whole substance yearn for it,
Until I enter into the joy of my God
Who is Triune and One,
Blessed forever.
Amen.
