Resources
Here are books and podcasts that have lifted up our team on our journey to Jesus’s heart
We’ve compiled some top suggestions that have been an amazing gift for us to get to know Mary and Jesus better, all the while breaking down barriers that prevent us from loving them and receiving their love perfectly.
There are many, many ways to pray.
This page is not meant to be in any way exhaustive. These are just some good ways to get started. But your relationship with God is unique - just as you are. The way God speaks to one person is not the way God speaks to another. We recommend that you try out different forms of prayer and if one brings you closer to God, then great. If it doesn’t seem to be helping you grow spiritually, leave it aside. Maybe you will come back to it at a different season of your life. You don’t have to be a master of every form of prayer - you just need to find a way to help you connect with the God who loves you.
Lectio Divina
Lectio Divina comes from the Latin for divine reading and offers a way of prayer and meditation while immersing yourself in scripture. There are four steps, each with their own actions… but there are many ways to improvise or adapt this technique.
Ignatian Prayer
St. Ignatius of Loyola encouraged people to develop an intimate relationship with a God who loves them and desires the best for them. He believed that our deepest desire is to return God’s love and that our feelings of joy and sorrow, peace and distress, were important indicators of the path toward fruitful decisions and deeper union with God. At the heart of Ignatian prayer are the Spiritual Exercises and the Daily Examen.
The Rosary
Praying the rosary is an ancient practice of prayer that can be really fruitful! But everyone's experience of it differs and there are many different ways to approach this prayer. Perhaps you grew up saying it and it comes as second nature to you. Perhaps you have never prayed the rosary and associate it with old church ladies and a rigid type of prayer that you have to memorize.
The order of prayers is indeed dictated and might strike you as too formalistic and constricting at first - but the order can also be reassuring and allow you to direct yourself back to prayer. The set and predictable cadence also can facilitate meditation and even space for listening to God speak to you personally.
So whether you have never prayed the rosary or have done so frequently - give it try. Even if it feels weird at first, try out some different methods and see what works for you.
Mass
The Catholic Mass is sometimes called the summit of prayer - it brings us to be one with God in the Eucharist. It is also a collective prayer of the people, where all our individual concerns and petitions, praise, thanksgiving, and repentance is brought together and laid before God our father.
Adoration
Pray in the presence of the blessed sacrament. If you have access to a church and can go in person - great! if you are stuck at home, check out the live stream.
Stations of the Cross
Reflect on Jesus’s passion, retracing his steps from Gethsemane to the tomb. Each step of the story (or station) commemorates a particular event along his journey and gives the participant time to reflect and pray.
Postures of Prayer
Learn to pray with your whole body like St. Dominic! Certain attitudes and gestures of the body can dispose us for prayer and, conversely, intense prayer can burst forth in a bodily expression.
The Suscipe
Suscipe is the Latin word for 'receive'
A simple prayer of surrender to God
Centering Prayer
Centering Prayer is a method of meditation used by Christians emphasizing interior silence
Getting started with centering prayer
Healing Wounds
Nature Walk
Practice convening with God in the glory of his creation - and giving thanks for the all the gifts he has given us and standing in awe at his awesome power.
Prayer Journaling
Writing as a form of prayer can be a really fruitful practice: it helps with distraction, it keeps you honest, and it allows you to see over time the ways God has acted in your life.
Other Resources
Catholic Catechism
The Bible
The Bible Project (excellent learning resource)
Interlinear (original language and literal translations)
Bible verses on prayer
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. James 5:13
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Romans 8:26
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. Psalm 145:18
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering. Psalm 141:2