1.
Opening to God, A Guide To Prayer
by Fr. Thomas Green, S.J.

2.
What is prayer?
 Prayer is the opening of the mind and heart to God.
(Thomas Keating)
 The desire to pray is itself a clear sign of the Lord’s
presence.
 Ninety-five percent of the work is His.

3.
How Prayer “Happens”
 The Lord makes the first move:
 He knocks.
 If we open to Him, He invites Himself “under our roof.”
 ...but he never breaks the door down.

4.
Discernment:
(How Do You Know It’s God?)
 Three sources of the voices:
 God
 Self
 Devil
 Discernment: discovering in prayer how the Lord wishes me
personally to act:
 Three guidelines for the beginner in prayer and discernment:
1. Fidelity to the Scriptures
2. Peace of heart
3. A ‘spiritual director’

5.
Essentials & Components
• A good pray-er is above all, a good listener.
 Hearing or listening is a good metaphor for prayer.

6.
Essentials & Components
 QUIET and SOLITUDE
 “God speaks in silences
 Only those who are quiet of heart can hear what He says.”

7.
Essentials & Components
 Knowing Oneself:
 We cannot love what we do not know. (p.93)
 With a deep knowledge of God come profound realization of
who we really are.
 Painful
 Facing honestly who and what we really are (An obvious results
of sin in our lives)

8.
Essentials & Components
 Purification
 Disposes ourselves to encounter God
 Includes penance & examination of conscience.

9.
Lectio Divina
 Reading (lectio),
 Reflecting on (meditatio)
 Responding on (oratio)
 Resting in (contemplatio)
 ...the Word of God

10.
Meditation vs. Contemplation
 Meditation - thinking & praying about something you
have read, seen or experienced.
 Biblical passage
 Writing of a saint
 Icon
 An answer to prayer

11.
Meditation vs. Contemplation
 Contemplation –
 Clearing one's mind
 Letting God communicate with
your heart and soul.
 “Centering Prayer”
Thomas Keating

12.
Meditation vs.
Contemplation
 Meditation on the scripture - essential first step
 Preparation:
 Remote -
 Read over passage you’re going to pray about.
 Consult commentaries to clarify context and basic message
 Immediate -
 What we do when ready to begin to pray.

13.
Other Prayer Forms
 Liturgy of the Hours
 Charismatic
 Mass
 Adoration
 Litanies
 Devotions

14.
Techniques vs. Mechanics
 John 3:8: The Spirit breathes where he will, and you
hear his voice, but you do not know from where he
comes and where he goes;
 Thus no “techniques” for making him speak.
 “Can’t turn God on and off like a water faucet or an
electric light.”
 However ...

15.
Prayer “Pathways”
 One size does NOT fit all.
 9 spiritual “temperaments”
 Traits
 Strengths
 Pitfalls.

16.
Prayer “Pathways”
 Prayer – Loving God ...
 Naturalists ... Out of Doors
 Sensates ... Through the Senses
 Traditionalists ... Through Ritual & Symbol
 Ascetics ... In Solitude & Simplicity
 Activists ... Through Confrontation
 Caregivers ... By Loving Others
 Enthusiasts ... With Mystery & Celebration
 Contemplatives ... Through Adoration
 Intellectuals ... With the Mind

17.
Classics

18.
Classics
 Way of the Pilgrim ................
 Revelations of Divine Love ....
 Dark Night of the Soul ...........
 Interior Castle ........................
 Invitation to Love ..................
 New Seeds of Contemplation
 Unknown
 Julian of Norwich
 John of the Cross
 Teresa of Avila
 Thomas Merton
 Thomas Keating

19.
Contemporary
 Sacred Romance
 John Eldredge (1977, Thomas Nelson)
 Daily Prayers for Busy People
 Fr. William O’Malley, S.J. (2003, Ligouri)
 Opening to God: A Guide to Prayer
 Thomas Green (2006, Ave Maria Press)
 Prayer
 Pope Benedict XVI (2013, Our Sunday Visitor)