Quotes About Prayer

my struggles with prayer; that's impossible and not even

La oración verdadera se hace para que ocurran cambios, y el cambiar nunca es fácil.

The whole prayer is an exercise in finding God. It assumes that God is present in our daily lives, and that his presence can be detected. If you think God is far away, pray the examen.

believed that God is always a good God. Facing difficulties, he lost his job. His home was about to be taken and all seemed hopeless. Braxton prayed

God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's "yes." Sometimes the answer is "no." Sometimes it's "you gotta be kidding.

Women want their husbands to be the spiritual leaders of their homes and to pray with them.

don't let human technology distract you from God's superiority.

One of the most common blocks to effective directed prayer is the fear of failure.

Divine Beloved, I arise with a grateful heart on this beautiful summer morning. May all the study, practice and prayer that I do be an offering to the enlightenment of all beings. May I be content to leave the Great Mystery of the Universe as a mystery, without thinking that I can figure it all out.

Centering prayer is a form of meditation that is a conscious letting go of small mind and its continuous self-centered fantasies.

The serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr is a classic. Say it with all your heart and let its wisdom penetrate your mind: God give me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't and the wisdom to know the difference.

Mother Meera is a contemporary Hindu saint who teaches that if we want anything we have to ask for it with our whole heart in a way that "your heart can be empty and God can fill it." To pray in this way it is necessary to remember that God has already given you the kingdom.

Prayer in Benedictine spirituality is not an interruption of our busy lives nor is it a higher act. Prayer is the filter through which we learn, if we listen hard enough, to see our world aright and anew and without which we live life with souls that are deaf and dumb and blind.

To pray in the midst of the mundane is simply and strongly to assert that this dull and tiring day is holy and its simple labors are the stuff of God's saving presence for me now.

Real contemplation, in other words, is not for its own sake. It doesn't take us out of reality. On the contrary, it puts us in touch with the world around us by giving us the distance we need to see where we are more clearly. To contemplate the gospel and not respond to the wounded in our own world cannot be contemplation at all. That is prayer used as an excuse for not being Christian. That is spiritual dissipation.

Prayer that is regular confounds both self-importance and the wiles of the world. It is so easy for good people to confuse their own work with the work of creation. It is so easy to come to believe that what we do is so much more important than what we are. It is so easy to simply get too busy to grow.

To a nonstop world, the Rule of Benedict brings balance and simplicity. In the face of a complex world with the twenty-four-hour workdays and constant motion, the Rule asks for a life that deals with a little bit of everything in proper measure: work, prayer, solitude, relationships. The Rule, in other words, is an antidote to excess and to human dwarfism. A proverb says, "Wherever there is excess, something is lacking." The Rule of Benedict mandates a measured life.

Spirituality without a prayer life is no spirituality at all, and it will not last beyond the first defeats. Prayer is an opening of the self so that the Word of God can break in and make us new. Prayer unmasks. Prayer converts. Prayer impels. Prayer sustains us on the way. Pray for the grace it will take to continue what you would like to quit.

Prayer restores the soul that is dry and dulled by years of trying to create a world that never completely comes.

Joan Wester Anderson

There is no need to say anything when you pray," the dean had heard Bishop Robert say at a recent confirmation in the city. "Just take time to look at God. And let Him look at you. That's all.

FRETTING MAGNIFIES THE PROBLEM, BUT PRAYER MAGNIFIES GOD.

When we're distracted and discouraged, tired and overwhelmed, there is no better place to go than to our Father. He alone has what we need. Don't snivel under a broom tree. Don't hide in a broom closet. Go to the Lord and let him sweep away your discouragement.

Do not be anxious about anything," Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6–7, "but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.