Quiet
Resources for contemplative prayer
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"If you want to pray, be silent. If you want silence, seek solitude."
St Bonaventure, 13th Century. "A long speech is one thing. A long love is another." "I want everything within me to grow silent except for the word spoken to me by God." "The only reason for human unhappiness is that we do not know how to stay quietly in our own room." Pascal, 17th Century. |
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Pray 3 Ways
A hand-out with instructions and encouragement
Tactile Prayer
Holding someone in Love
Godly reading - 'Lectio Divina'
A hand-out with instructions and encouragement
Tactile Prayer
Holding someone in Love
Godly reading - 'Lectio Divina'
A set of excellent hand-outs (I forget now where they came from but I think it might have been the Southern Star monastery at Norsewood)
Silence: Hearing from God in the silence
The Power of Solitude
Divine Office: 'Liturgy of the Hours'
Lectio Divina: Holy reading of the Word
Retreats: making the most of an individual or group Retreat
Silence: Hearing from God in the silence
The Power of Solitude
Divine Office: 'Liturgy of the Hours'
Lectio Divina: Holy reading of the Word
Retreats: making the most of an individual or group Retreat
Some Methods of Prayer
An old hand-out resource with instructions for praying scripture, 'Be still and know that I am God', imaginative contemplation, review of the day ('Examen'), and 'Holy Looking'
An old hand-out resource with instructions for praying scripture, 'Be still and know that I am God', imaginative contemplation, review of the day ('Examen'), and 'Holy Looking'
Questions to reflect on the day.
Pay attention to the ways in which the Lord has been present to you today.
When did I feel drawn by the Lord?
How did I meet the Lord? ... in fear, a misunderstand, joy or suffering?
How did the word of God come alive to me today?
How did God move me?
When was I moved out of myself in compassion?
What am I grateful for?
How do I feel about the future?
In what area of my heart is the Lord calling me to conversion?
Pay attention to the ways in which the Lord has been present to you today.
When did I feel drawn by the Lord?
How did I meet the Lord? ... in fear, a misunderstand, joy or suffering?
How did the word of God come alive to me today?
How did God move me?
When was I moved out of myself in compassion?
What am I grateful for?
How do I feel about the future?
In what area of my heart is the Lord calling me to conversion?
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"When you are faithful in your daily prayer time you will slowly experience yourself in a deeper way. Because in the 'useless hour' in which you do nothing 'important' or urgent you have to come to terms with your basic powerlessness, your inability to solve your or other people's problems or to change the world. When you do not avoid that experience but live through it, you will find out that your many projects, plans and obligations become less urgent and critical and lose their power over you. They will take their appropriate place in your life and leave you free to offer all your time to God."
Advice given to Henri Nouwen by Abbot John Eudes Bamberger (Photo of a small tile from Jaffa, Israel) |
Author unknown
