jim henson

I found an interesting article about finding a prayer style that suits your personality type. The author uses the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator and matches it up with four Catholic Prayer traditions.

NT (Intuitive-Thinking) types are paired with the prayer tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas. In this tradition, you study a virtue, fault or theological truth from all angles in order to understand it. A scripture verse is meditated on in the morning and "carried around" through the day to effect a change in behavior.

NF (Intuitive-Feeling) types are paired with Augustinian prayer. Here you transpose the words of Scripture into daily life and current situation.

SJ (Sensing-Judging) types are asked to try the prayer style of St. Ignatius. The one who prays is put into the scriptural situation and so becomes a participant in salvation history. The liturgies of Holy Week are a good example of this type of prayer.

SP (Sensing-Perceiving) types are steered towards Franciscan prayer. This type of prayer is open to the working of the Holy Spirit. These people tend to pray throughout the day using something like the Jesus Prayer.

Hat tip to Lisa Graas via Twitter.

I wanted to post this Prayer for Control of the Tongue I've seen around the internet.  It is a very good one to  to remember and pray.

It is good to remember this not only as control of the physical tongue, but control of the virtual tongue (i.e., the keyboard) as well.

This is a video I did some years back on Psalm 51, a psalm that is prayed every Friday in the Church.

In today's gospel from Luke, the Tax Collector utters the most beautiful and heart felt prayer in the midst of his feelings of inadequacy in the Presence of God--

Today we continue our reading of St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle with the second mansion.

In this mansion are people who have begun to pray.  They want to move on with their spiritual life but lack the discipline to do so because of attachment to sin. In spite of that attachment though, the Lord continually calls souls that reside in this second room of the Castle.

God holds these souls dear, she tells us, and speaks to them through others, through sickness and troubles, through spiritual reading and sometimes in prayer.

The more we open ourselves to hearing God, however, the more the devil comes after us, so we must be on guard. Souls in this mansion struggle with the pleasures of this world and of the opinion of others.  The temptation is to return to the first mansion and not to go forward. The temptation is also there to run away altogether like the Prodigal Son in the Bible.  The examples of others' whose good opinions we crave, sometimes sway us away from the Faith.

St. Teresa advises that we surround ourselves with those advanced in the spiritual life and not be tempted by those who would call us out from the journey to union with God.  It is important to follow God's will and not to expect Him to follow ours.  There is no magic formula that is necessary--only perseverance.

It is important to meditate on Christ.  This, she says, is the only way to heaven.

I keep coming back to the rosary.

As much as I try to travel down the road of prayer that is "off the top of my head", most of the time, I come back to the prayers of the Church--the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Scripture reading and the Jesus Prayer.

I have discovered fervent, short prayer to be especially affective.  The fewer words I say, when praying "on my own", the better the outcome usually is.  For other times, though, my own prayers tend to be obsessive and too inwardly focused.  I find I do not benefit from setting aside time to worry as a spiritual practice.  The worries come.  God knows they are there.

Praying is necessary, however.  Praying is helpful.  Prayer is communion with God.  The rosary and other similar prayers are especially helpful when no words of my own will suffice, which, for me, is most of the time.

I also find pre-formulated prayer to be helpful in reining in spiritual pride. If I meditate on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, I am focusing on Jesus' sacrifice and not on my own mind. 

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and October's devotion. 

Try praying this prayer with the Church this month

Do you sometimes have difficulty with consistency in morning prayer?  Beginning to Pray, by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom suggests that spontaneous prayer tends to come forth most easily when we are either in the depths of despair, and realize our own spiritual poverty, or on a spiritual mountain top and are praising God.

For those times in between, pre-written prayers are best.  One that he recommends is a prayer by Orthodox Saint Philaret of Moscow.  It is a beautifully appropriate morning prayer.

O Lord,
grant that I may 
meet the coming day 
in peace.

Help me in all things
to rely upon 
Thy Holy Will.
In every hour 
of the day,
reveal Thy will to me.

Bless my dealings with all who 
surround me.

Teach me to treat all that comes to me
throughout the day with peace of soul,
and with the firm conviction that 
Thy will governs all.

In all my deeds and words,
guide my thoughts and feelings.

In unforeseen events, let me not forget
that all are sent by Thee.

Teach me to act firmly and wisely,
without embittering and embarrassing others.

Give me the strength to bear the fatigue
of the coming day with all that it shall bring.

Direct my will.

Teach me to pray.

Pray Thou Thyself in me.

~Amen.

Hat tip to Deacon Michael of Ancient Faith Radio.

A Trail of Flowers tagged me in a meme! I haven't been tagged in a meme for a long time!  This meme is about your favorite prayers.  Here are the rules.

"Name your three favourite prayers and explain why they're your favourites.  Then tag five bloggers - give them a link, and then go and tell them they have been tagged.  Finally, tell the person who tagged you that you've completed the meme.  The Liturgy and the Sacraments are off limits here.  I'm more interested in people's favorite devotional prayers."

1) The Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.

2) The Prayer of St. Gertrude:  Eternal Father, I offer you the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my family.

3) The Prayer of the Angel at Fatima:  Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy.

All my prayers seem to point to God's mercy.  I think that is one of the most important things that Jesus came on earth to do--tell us of His Father's mercy. Trust in God's mercy drives away despair and brings hope.

The illustration above is called Evening Prayers by Eugene Ernest Hillemacher. The gorgeous details in the mother's clothes are worth viewing over at the Art Renewal Center in its larger size.

I tag Michele at A Simple Life, RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing,Teófilo de Jesús at Vivificat!, Paul at Sober Catholic, and Collins Benedict at Stumbling Back Home.