Mind-Full of God: Some Practices
The other week my post was about how God never stops thinking about you. Today I offer you the opposite: how you can think of God during the day.
When you love God and are convinced that God loves you, frequently he is on your mind. In this case, not absence but thinking makes the heart grow fonder. The more you think about God, the epitome of truth, goodness, and beauty, the more deeply you love him. The more you reflect on God’s relentless love for you, the more likely it is that you cultivate a passionate love for God. Here are ten practices you might adopt:
Tips for Staying Mindful of God
1. As soon as you awake, think of God, who graciously grants you another day of life. When you retire, remember times you pleased your loving Creator as well as times you disappointed him. With a thankful heart review the blessings God showered on you that day. Then entrust yourself to divine care as you sleep.
2. When I was a novice, a convent bell rang each hour to signal it was time to pray the “hour prayer.” This custom ensured that we would lift our minds and hearts frequently to our Lord. Although you don’t have an hour bell, during the day turn your thoughts often to God: when you behold a brilliant sunrise setting the sky on fire, yellow roses blooming in your garden, autumn leaves splashed with the warm colors of the rainbow, or the antics of your Siamese cat. Think of God with gratitude as you enjoy his personal gifts—a wonderful friend or spouse, a talent you possess, unexpected good fortune. Especially in happy times and in trying times, be keenly aware of God.
3. Designate a particular action as a cue for recalling God like a little electric shock. One woman thinks of God whenever she touches a doorknob. For another person, climbing stairs brings him to mind. Some people keep a small stone or other object in their pocket to remind them of God.
4. Place objects in your home and workplace that will evoke thoughts of God: a crucifix, a Bible, palm, a religious picture, statue, plaque, bookmark, keychain, screen saver, or magnet on the refrigerator. Display some of these items on a prayer altar along with a candle and something from nature such as a plant, flowers, colorful leaves, and a shell. Pray there.
5. Dwell on significant favors God bestowed on you over the years. Maybe you survived a life-threatening surgery or won a lottery. Because memories tend to dissipate like a wisp of smoke, you record these love-gifts in a special book. Periodically review them to remember and relish them anew. These memories make you feel as though God were giving you a warm embrace.
6. Author Flannery O’Connor said, “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” Write in a journal because your entries uncover what you think about God. They also reveal what is happening in your spiritual life and shed light on your relationship with God. Your journal contains a history of your spiritual growth and your deepening love for God. Later read over what you wrote and annotate your entries.
7. Occasionally rein in your wild thoughts and focus on God. Ponder your divine Lover: his holiness, glorious divine attributes, and activity. Reflect on God’s words in Scripture and commit some of them to memory. Meditate on the life of Jesus. Delve deeply into the meaning of the Gospel stories as St. Ignatius of Loyola advised—by bringing them to life in your imagination, incorporating your five senses. Let an episode in Jesus’s life play out in your mind like a movie in which you are a character.
An Example: The Storm at Sea
Picture Jesus sound asleep on the cushion as rain pelts him. Visualize the towering waves and feel the violent rocking of the boat. See the lightning bolts, smell the ozone they produce, and hear the cracks of thunder. Buffeted by the wind, hear it whistling, and see it whipping the sails and the apostles’ tunics. Feel seawater splashing your face and swirling about your feet in the bottom of the boat. Picture the apostles’ panic-stricken faces and hear their voices hoarsely calling on Jesus to wake up and rescue them. Then watch as Jesus opens his eyes, gets up, and raises an arm over the roiling waters. Hear him command, “Peace! Be still!” Be stunned by the sudden quiet.
8. Take a contemplative walk through a park or a forest or along a beach. In the midst of nature, peacefully ponder the Creator of all things. Or sit calmly in your backyard, surrounded by its quiet beauty. Within your house, soak in the exquisite play of leaf shadows on the wall, the delicate, velvety petals of your orchid, or the cozy warmth of the burning logs in your fireplace.
9. Focus. Often during prayer or Mass, you are distracted by things like pressing problems, the woman coughing beside you, and what to have for dinner. Sometimes as your eyes glide over the words of a prayer or your lips form the words, your brain is running along another track. Struggle to focus your mind like a laser beam on God and on the meaning of the prayers.
10. Respond to God. Teacher Bernard Overberg wrote,
“When God gives me a thought about himself without my having sought it, he, so to say, greets my soul. Then I should return his greeting by allowing my thoughts to linger somewhat on him and by saying a few words to him interiorly. For example: God, stand by me! or All for your love!”
Benefit of Thinking of God
Thinking of God brings about serenity and a sense of well-being even when you are caught in a traffic jam or lying on a hospital bed. A friend who was hospitalized and facing surgery was petrified. Then, a crucifix on the wall facing her reminded her of God’s immense love for us. Remarkably, she experienced that God was with her to the extent that she physically experienced his protective hand holding her. She even felt the spaces between his fingers. And with that, her fear of the future ordeal evaporated.
Etymologically the word think is the root of thank. Thinking about God makes your heart overflow with thankfulness for his abundant love and bountiful blessings. No wonder St. Gregory of Nazianzus recommended, “We ought to remember God more often than we breathe.”
• What places or experiences prompt you to think of God?
• What cue to remember God will you choose: inserting an electric plug, getting into a car, turning on the television, or another usual action?
• Which Gospel story appeals to you for an Ignatian-style meditation?
• What memories of God’s goodness to you fill you with joy today?
Saints’ Witty, Funny, and Wise Sayings for Their Younger Siblings
Saints in heaven have left behind a legacy of wisdom in words. This is in addition to the example of their lives. By living by their words, we can hope to join them someday. I’m currently working on a project that has me meeting or re-meeting some of these pithy sayings. I share with you here a short collection of ones I found most delightful.
First, let me remind you that I once researched the dying words of saints. These were published in the book I Am Going . . . Reflections on the Last Words of the Saints, which is available on Amazon (clicking on the word “Amazon” will take you there) and from St. Mary’s Press.
That book has the words of 89 canonized saints, a brief bio for each, and a reflection on the words. A beautiful blackline drawing accompanies 14 of the saints.
Now for your enjoyment, enlightenment, and inspiration some saintly quotations . . .
ABOUT BEING GOOD
“No one heals himself by wounding another.” ~ St. Ambrose
“Nothing appeases an enraged elephant so much as the sight of a little lamb.” ~ St. Francis de Sales
“Don’t waste your suffering.” ~ Saint Pope John Paul lI
“Feeding the hungry is a greater work than raising the dead.” ~ Saint John Chrysostom
“We shall be called to account not only for every idle word, but also for every idle silence.” ~ Saint Ambrose
“Our business is to gain heaven, everything else is a sheer waste of time.” ~ Saint Vincent de Paul
“Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.” ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
“It is by design that Jesus hid the last day from us—so that we’d be on the lookout for him every day of our lives.” ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
ABOUT CHRISTIAN LIFE
“God thirsts to be thirsted for.” ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo
“When you approach the tabernacle, remember that he has been waiting for you for twenty centuries.” ~ Saint Josemaria Escriva
“The earth is pregnant with God.” ~ Saint Angela of Foligno
“We must empty purgatory by our prayers.” Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
“Be merry, really merry. The life of a true Christian should be a perpetual jubilee, a prelude to the festivals of eternity.” ~ Saint Theophane Venard
“From the moment of her fiat, Mary began to carry all of us in her womb.” ~ Saint Adrian
“When you are in the kitchen, God walks amid the pots and pans.” ~ Teresa of Avila
“Don’t be discouraged because you are discouraged.” ~ St. Francis de Salles
ABOUT ACTING
“We cannot go to heaven in featherbeds.” ~ Saint Thomas More
“Hell is full of the talented, but Heaven of the energetic.” ~ Saint Jane Francis de Chantal
“One who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.” ~ Saint Teresa of Avila
“Better mistakes than paralysis.” ~ Saint Julie Billiart
“The future starts today, not tomorrow.” ~ Saint Pope John Paul II
“Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.” ~ St. Jerome
“It can only be disgraceful for some Christians to snore while other Christians are in peril.” ~ Saint Thomas More
• Do you have a favorite quotation from a Saint? You might add it in a comment.
This video presents the Litany of Saints in Latin but so you can read it. A plus is that a picture accompanies each petition so you can visualize the one you are asking, “Pray for us.”
God Thinking of You
God thinking of you constantly is another heartwarming topic during this month of the Sacred Heart.
A Loved One Fills the Mind
A lover can identify with the line of a love song: “You were always on my mind.” The beloved becomes an obsession. Day and night the lover’s mind is flooded with thoughts of the object of affection. Sometimes these are deliberate; other times they are spontaneous. The loved one is the first thought on awaking and the last thought before succumbing to sleep.
Certain sights trigger thoughts of the one loved, for example, a person with a similar hairdo, a car that resembles their, or a cherished gift from the beloved.
The lover indulges in daydreams about their one and only. They recall with joy all their encounters, which are seared into their memory. Like binge-watching television shows, they replay these meetings and weigh each word.
You Are Never Out of God’s Mind
A stained-glass window in one church depicted the eye of God in a triangle. A little boy told his teacher that he didn’t like this picture. It scared him. She wisely explained, “That eye doesn’t mean that God is watching to catch you doing something wrong. No. It means that God loves you so much that he can’t take his eyes off you.”
God’s intellect is powerful beyond anything you can imagine. Whereas humans are capable of holding only one thought at a time, God is able to entertain innumerable thoughts simultaneously. God’s love is also unfathomable, without measure. These two truths imply that the Almighty One constantly thinks about you, his beloved. You are always the object of God’s loving concern.
Jesus’s Teaching on This
Jesus taught that God the Father watches over the flowers and the sparrows. He knows whenever a sparrow falls from the sky. God even knows how many hairs are on your head. For sure, then, he is thinking about you, his special creation.
At this very moment God is well aware of you. If he weren’t, you would vanish into oblivion. In fact, you were on God’s mind from all eternity. In Scripture, our Lord says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). The holy One engineered the vast, magnificent universe, which some astronomers claim comprises at least two trillion galaxies! But God also conceived of you, a one-of-a-kind human being, and decided to create you.
God Was Thinking of You Before You Existed
God chose the years your life would span, the places you would call home, your family members, the shape and features of your body, and your talents and skills. Your Creator has thoughtfully arranged your days: “Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Moreover, God had a dream for you: the ideal person he created you to be.
Your whole life—from the first second of your existence to your final breath—is in God’s mind like a flash. Each aspect of your life and all your circumstances are in his purview. That is why when the psalmist was distressed, he could pray, “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?” (Psalm 56:8). Thoughts about you are set in God’s mind indelibly.
God Is Thinking of You at All Times
Your divine Lover is thinking about you when you delight in marvels of earth and sky, when you are sick and suffering, when you grieve for a loved one, when you attain a goal, when you struggle with temptations, and when you wrestle with a problem. God is thinking about you when you are happy and laughing, when you are filled with fear and anxiety, when you are praised, and when you are criticized. He is fully aware of you when you perform an act of charity . . . and when you fail to love.
God professes in lyrical poetry that he will be mindful of you forever:
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49:15)
No matter how far you may stray from God, this faithful Lover will never blot you from his mind. At times you need help most, you can be certain that God is aware of it. As the psalmist said, “I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me” (Psalm 40:17).
In Scripture God tells you, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Psalm 55:9). How consoling to know that some of those divine high thoughts are of you!
A Love Song
“More” was sung at my sister’s wedding. Some of the lines could well be God’s words to you.
• How does it make you feel to know that God thinks of you without ceasing?
• At what times in your life are you pleased that God is aware of you?
• How can you stay mindful of God?
God’s Love for You
God’s love for you is the focus of June, the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart, symbol of God’s love. I’ll be posting excerpts from my book A Love Affair with God. Here is the first one from the chapter on presence:
Loving a Human Being
When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is presence. How can you love if you are not there? ~Thick Nhat Hanh
Being alone with the beloved, gazing into their eyes, is intoxicating. It doesn’t matter if no words are exchanged. Silently basking in the other’s presence is enough. Doing things together is sheer joy. At the sight of the loved one, the heart leaps. In a crowded room, the one in love is instantly aware of the special someone and remains conscious of their presence.
Time with the loved one passes all too swiftly, as though life were on fast forward. The lover wishes the time together would never end.
When the two are apart, a person in love keenly misses the significant other. He or she is restless, appears preoccupied, and feels as incomplete as the lion, scarecrow, and tinman of Oz. Even surrounded by other people, the lover is lonely. Time drags while anticipating meeting the beloved again.
The devoted one strives to see the loved one as many times and for as long as possible. He or she is creative in devising plans to meet. An encounter may require going out of the way a few steps or a thousand miles. It may entail adjusting a schedule or sacrificing a favorite activity. Being with the loved one supersedes everything and everyone else. If plans for meeting fall through, the heart is crushed.
God’s Love for You
The mystic Meister Eckhart, OP, asserted, “No human being has ever desired anything as much as God desires to be with him or her.”
You can believe with confidence that God mightily desires your company. At the Last Supper Jesus said, “I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). God also promised, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (Revelation 3:20).
Dining with God is an image of the intimacy you are privileged to experience with your divine Lover. Such intimacy, however, depends on being attuned to God’s voice and opening the door of your heart. William Holman Hunt illustrated this in his painting The Light of the World. Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns and holding a lantern, knocks at a door. But that door lacks a doorknob and so can only be opened from inside.
Nicholas of Cusa expressed God’s omnipresence geometrically: “God is he whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to our holy God as Most High (transcendent), yes, but also Most Near (immanent). (#2581) St. Paul preached, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). God totally engulfs you. This means God is available and there for you 24/7. A very short story serves as a metaphor for God’s ubiquity:
Little fish asks old fish, “Where is the thing called ocean?” Old fish replies, “It is the thing you are in right now.” “But this is just water,” protests the little fish, disappointed; and he swims away to continue his futile search.
Psalm 139
Sacred Scripture limns God’s all-encompassing presence in beautiful poetry:
Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, [land of the dead]
you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
(Psalm 139:7–10)
You could expand this psalm with personal verses: “If I have to work with so-and-so who drives me crazy, you are there.” “If I am being interviewed for a new position, you are there.” “If I am diagnosed with a chronic disease, you are there.” “If my mother dies, you are there.”
God in Creation
God surrounds you above, below, and on every side. “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24) the Almighty questions. God has always been present, animating everything from an infinitesimal microbe to a fifteen-ton Tyrannosaurus rex. In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, Jesus declared, “Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.” Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ (Praise Be to You) affirmed God’s presence within every created thing:
“The creatures of this world no longer appear to us under merely natural guise because the risen One is mysteriously holding them to himself and directing them towards fullness as their end. The very flowers of the field and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence.” (100)
One sublime poem of Gerald Manley Hopkins, SJ, begins, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” In a letter he elaborated: “All things therefore are charged with love, are charged with God and, if we knew how to touch them, give off sparks and take fire, yield drops and flow, ring and tell of him.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, made the same point: “By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagine it as distant and inaccessible, whereas in fact we live steeped in its burning layers.”
St. Catherine of Siena wrote, “What then is not a sanctuary? Where then can I not kneel and pray at a shrine made holy by God’s presence?” St. Angela of Foligno once cried out, “The world is pregnant with God!”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning conveys the same idea in her epic novel/poem “Aurora Leigh”:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Scripture Testifying to God’s Presence
It follows that God is unshakeable as your shadow. He promises, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). As Pharaoh’s army was in hot pursuit of the Hebrews, they called out to Moses in fright. He replied, “The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still” (Exodus 14:14). And the army drowned. Then while the chosen people trekked through the desert, God led them as a pillar of cloud by day and at night as a pillar of fire.
The words God spoke to Joshua he also speaks to you: “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). There is not one second when God is not close at hand, delighting in you and loving you. As a matter of fact, God dwells in the depths of your being.
God Alive in You
A Sunday school teacher asked his little students: “Does God ever take a vacation?” Hilary answered, “Of course. God went with me on my vacation.” God is not only all around you; he is within you. As a Carmelite website states: “A God is the Divine Guest of my soul, dwelling there day and night, desirous of receiving the unceasing homage of my intimate friendship and of my love!”
Blessed John of Ruysbroeck noted, “God is the one who approaches us from the inside out.”
After temptations plagued St. Catherine of Siena, somewhat miffed with Jesus, she demanded, “Where were you when I was in such a frightful situation?” He assured her, “Daughter, I was in your heart, fortifying you with grace.”
Jesus promised, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). He also proposed an image for your vital union with him: a vine and branches. As long as you are attached to Jesus, divine life courses through you, invigorating you. St. Paul wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). By virtue of your baptism, Christ likewise lives in you. You are a walking tabernacle!
In the ongoing inner life of the Trinity, when the Father thinks about himself, the Son, the Word, comes into being. The Father and Son behold each other and respond with a love so powerful that it becomes another Person, namely the Holy Spirit. This Spirit, the bond that unites the Trinity, is love personified. Jesus sent this Holy Spirit, Love, to you. As St. Paul claimed, “The Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9). Love inhabits your very being!
Realizing God’s Presence
You could be acutely aware of God’s abiding presence during exceptional moments. For example, you might realize that God is with you while you are celebrating a significant occasion like an anniversary. Or this awareness may occur when you accomplish something you thought impossible—like driving safely through a blizzard or mastering a new computer. It happened to a woman I know. Although she was a shy introvert, she agreed to deliver the eulogy at the funeral for a friend’s mother named Louise. Driving to the church, she was filled with dread . . . until she noticed the license plate on the car in front of her: 4LOUISE. She interpreted this as a message that God would empower her. Her fear shrank.
You might be overwhelmed with the knowledge of God’s presence while engaged in a mundane task like folding laundry or doing dishes. Any of these experiences might bring tears to your eyes.
Divine Constancy
God, whose love for you is immeasurable, proves it by outrageous things: acts of self-surrender. First, God became a man so he could love you with a human heart, reveal himself to you, and die to keep you near him for all eternity. Second, the God-Man surrendered to a humiliating, agonizing death. And third, to be with you during your earthly life, at every Mass God condescends to assume the forms of bread and wine—small, vulnerable, inanimate things! All over the world, God is placed on altars, locked in tabernacles, and within our very bodies. Such is the folly of God’s love. Appropriately, the Eucharist is known as the Real Presence.
God aches for you, his creature, to be with him forever. When you ignore God, forget about God, or are angry at God—even if you doubt God exists—this steadfast Lover does not jilt you. No, God patiently waits for your attention like a parent with unflagging love waits for an obstreperous teenager to grow up. God loves you unconditionally.
An Image of God’s Faithfulness
The mother in the book The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown is a beautiful image of God. When her little bunny announces that he will assume different forms in order to hide from her, she responds with endearing lines like the following:
If you become a fish in a trout stream,
I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you.
If you become a crocus in a hidden garden,
I will be a gardener. And I will find you.
If you become a bird a fly away from me,
I will be a tree that you come home to.
If you become a little boy and run into a house,
I will become your [human] mother and
catch you in my arms and hug you.
During your sojourn on earth, you will never be separated from God. His perfect, unwavering love for you guarantees that. Jesus always lives up to his name Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” He confirms this by reassuring you, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Take heart: You are never alone!
Blessed Ramon Lull wrote, “What is the greatest darkness? The absence of my Beloved. And what is the greatest light? The presence of my Beloved.” Because God is omnipresent, every day of your life you walk in the light.
• When are you most aware that God is with you?
• What in nature assures you of God’s presence?
• When has God come to your rescue?
Dan Schutte set the words of Psalm 139 to music. Here is his version, “You Are Near”:
Our Father: The Lord’s Prayer
The Preeminent Prayer
The Our Father prayer is central to Christianity. During the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), formerly called RCIA, the candidates receive the Our Father at Mass in the fifth week of Lent. It is a precious gift Christians have prayed for two thousand years. When we pray it, we are united with Christians all over the world.
The Divine Origin
The Church of the Pater Noster (Latin for “Our Father) in Jerusalem traditionally stands on the site where Jesus gave us this prayer. On the church’s outside walls and along a cloister walk are 140 ceramic plaques each with the Our Father in a different language.
The Lord’s Prayer the way we pray it is found in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 6:9–13). Jesus says, “Pray this way.” The Gospel of Luke has a shorter version of the prayer (Luke 11:1–4). In Luke, the prayer is Jesus’s response when the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray like John the Baptist taught his disciples. I wonder what form of prayer John taught.
Our Father: The Composition
The prayer comprises seven petitions. The first three focus on glorifying God and the rest are pleas for help. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that these petitions not only express everything we could ever desire, but they are in the sequence in which they should be desired.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Our Father the summary of the whole Gospel. (#2161) In the last section of this book the words of the prayer are explained in detail.
Do you remember praying this prayer in Latin? Singing it?
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum
adveniat regnum tuum fiat voluntas tua
sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie
et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris
et ne nos inducas in tentationem sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
At the end of the prayer, Protestants add: “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for and ever.” At a Catholic Mass, these words are said after the Our Father is prayed immediately after another short prayer.
Addressing the Father
It makes sense that Jesus’s prayer addresses the Father. He called God his Father 177 times in the Gospels. Since his Father is also our heavenly Father, we direct the Our Father prayer to him.
Saint André Bessette claimed that all earth is a thin space! God is incredibly always close to us no matter where we are. As this saint put it, “When you say the Our Father, God’s ear is next to your lips.” It’s thought-provoking that we don’t address God as almighty One or eternal God, but in the intimate term Father. Also, look at the pronoun: our. We acknowledge that all humankind is united as brothers and sisters.
When the Our Father Is Prayed
The Didache, the first Christian book of instruction from 80–90 A.D., says that the Our Father should be prayed three times a day. It adds to the prayer the words “for yours are the power and the glory forever.” Protestants and Eastern Orthodox conclude with similar doxologies.
You pray the Our Father at Mass when it marks the beginning of the Communion Rite. The rubrics call for the priest or bishop alone to raise his hands during the prayer. People have gotten into the habit of raising their hands too—an early Christian prayer position called orans. Some people hold hands, which is also meaningful. Liturgists frown on these innovations.
You also pray the Our Father six times when you pray the Rosary and once in the Divine Mercy chaplet. You might pray it throughout the day in the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours), which is the official prayer of the Church. You might also pray during your personal prayer in the morning and/or evening.
Praying the Our Father Profitably
St. Edmund said, “It is better to say one Our Father fervently and devoutly than a thousand with no devotion and full of distraction.” Since the Our Father is a rote prayer, it is easy to say it on autopilot. To deepen your spirituality, pray it slowly and reflectively. You might ponder each word before moving on. It’s said that a novice asked Saint Teresa of Avila “Mother, what shall I do to become a contemplative?” St. Teresa replied, “Say the Our Father, but take an hour to say it.”
By the way, St. Teresa discusses this prayer at length in her book The Way of Perfection.”
For centuries, as early as Gregorian chant, composers have set the Lord’s Prayer to music. Modern singers have sung the Lord’s Prayer, including Susan Boyle.
• How did you first learn the Our Father?
• Which petition is most meaningful to you?
• How do you fight distractions when you pray?
Here is the Our Father in Aramaic, the language in which Jesus taught it:
Here is a sung version of the Aramaic Our Father:
