WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND RECAP OF PREVIOUS WEEKS

WEEK 1 : WORSHIP, OUR ATTITUDE Importance of Corporate Worship 7 convictions of Corporate Worship

-humbles ourselves into the Lordship of Christ -encourages, admonish and deepen our relationship with Christ. -promotes unity & love -deepens our relationship with Christ. -prepares our heart to receive the revelation of Gods Word in our lives. -releases power in our lives -can be a witness

WEEK 2 : FELLOWSHIP ~Worldly fellowship vs. Christian Fellowship ~Agape Love ~Caring & Sharing ~Mutual Giving ~Hospitality ~Hindrances Pride, Selfishness, Lack of Love, Lack of Understanding, Independence,
Busyness, Fear, Hypocrisy, Mask Wearing, Sin the Life.

~Benefits of being in a good fellowship.

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 WHAT IS PRAYER? Prayer is the raising of the raising of ones mind and heart to God ~St John Damascene Prayer is a meeting of two great thirsts~ St Augustine, our thirst for God, O God thou hast made us for Thee, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee but that thirst on our part was founded on the thirst of God for us. God searched for us first. Every religion on earth teaches on how we are thirsting for God, searching for Him. But our faith, God searches for us. St Augustine teaches us on his sermon on the woman at the well (John 4), yes she was thirsting for God, but even more imba was that Jesus was thirsting for her faith. When the two thirsts meet thats prayer. Prayer in my opinion, is a close sharing between friends. ~St Theresa of Avila I no longer called you servants but friends. ~John 15:14 grow into close friendship with God. Its a need of RELATIONSHIP. Prayer is taking the time frequently to be with the one that we know loves us.~ St Theresa of Avila. The initiative is God, not us. Its God who is loving us first. And we are growing closer to into intimacy with God. Fathers of the Church describes it. Out from the Small soul. Your life is not about you. Its your life, but its not about you. In the little soul we say life is about me. But when we adore, we get out of ourselves, and get into the Magna Anima (great soul) acknowledge the godliness of God and break open from the small soul. Prayer was so important to the early Church Acts 1:14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. Acts 2:42-43
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They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the

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breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 4:24, 31-32

Everyone was filled with awe at the many

wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

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When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

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After

they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. Prayer is a communion from the Latin communio = (sharing in common) In Greek is , pronounced kinonia which is often translated as "fellowship" Prayer is a fellowship with the whole Church. Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christs love. CCC 2565 Eph 3:18-21 may have power, together with all the Lords holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
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and to know this love that surpasses

knowledgethat you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
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to him be glory in the church and in Christ

Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that. --Saint John Vianney

BASIC FORMS OF PRAYER Prayer of ADORATION Prayer of PETITION Prayer of INTERCESSION (Prayer of Thanksgiving, Prayer of Praise) Praise & Worship Type of Prayer - Prayer of CONTEMPLATION

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 ADORATION & BLESSING ~ The word adoratio very probably originated from the phrase (manum) ad os (mittere), which designated the act of kissing the hand to the statue of the god one wished to honour. Professor at Mundelein Fr Gorman Sullivan O Lord, we thank you that You are God, and we are not. It is breaking us from ourselves and to great universe. Ps95~ The psalmist invites us Come! Out of our little shells and into Gods presence. Pope Benedict explored the meaning of the word Adoration with the youths at Cologne. adrti. Latin~ Ad Ora. To the mouth of. To adore is to be turned with your whole life towards God. So that we are mouth to mouth to God, breathing in God into our lives, so that we are face to face towards God. Who is the one who was the great adoration in the bible? Who is it? Our Church fathers say it was Adam. Who was in close relationship with God. Imagine now Adam walking in friendship in the garden with God. His life properly aligned to God. That is great adorer. What are the descendents of Adam called to do? To make the world a paradise. A place of proper praise. A place of Adoratsio. When we are in adoration with God, we become properly ordered. Because we are in right relationship with God. The bible calls this righteousness Everyday from sunrise to sunrise to sunset, believers renew their adoration or acknowledgement of the presence of God, Creator and Lord of the Universe. This recognition is full of gratitude that wells up from thed depths of their heart and floods their entire being, for it is only by adoring and loving God above all human beings can totally fulfill themselves. Pope Benedict XVI August 7, 2005 God does not need our prayer. We need prayer. God s glory is not intensified by our prayers. Its helping us. In the Eucharistic Preface IV~ Although you have no need of our praise, yet thanksgiving is itself your gift, since our praises add nothing to your greatness but profit us for our salvation through Christ our Lord. PETITION ~ its a prayer of asking. Everyone in the bible asks. Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Nehemiah, John, James, Peter, Paul, Mary,everyone asks. Jesus teaches us the Our Father, and what is the Our Father but a String of petitions.

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 John Paul II says towards the end of his life When I was a young man, I though that petitioning is a lesser form of prayer. Now that I am an old man, I find myself praying for the simplest things. This is a very interesting form of prayer. A lot of people think it is very primitive of immature to ask. But doesnt God know what we need before we ask? Were not informing God. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.~Matt 6:8 We are acknowledging our radical dependence when we ask on God. God delights in our petitionary prayers, just as a parent delights in the petition of their children. Do children ask for the wrong things sometimes? YES. WRONG TIMING. ~Story of how a boy wants to eat desert before dinner time. WRONG THING. ~Ask a KFC instead of a food. After going for Art Classes, Dad brought us to ABC for desert when we asked for ice-cream! St Augustine ~ Why do we preserve in prayer? God expands our souls when we petition. So that when we actually receive what we ask for we become ready for it. For that we remember the story of Lot who was praying so much INTERCESSION~ Praying for someone. On behalf of someone. Abraham over Sodom.
GENISIS 18:23 wicked?
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Abraham came near and said, Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the

Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and
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not[t]spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

Far be it from You to do [u]such

a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth [v]deal justly? And he said, Now behold, I have [y]ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?

And He said, I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.32 Then he said, Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once; suppose ten are found there?

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And He said, I will not destroy it on account of the ten.
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As soon as He had finished speaking to

Abraham the LORD departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

Then we hear the story of Moses raising his hands towards the war of the Israelites against the Amelikites. Exodus 17:8 ~ Moses lifted his hands, Israel had an advantage, but when he let it fall the advantage went to Amalek. But Moses arms grew heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him and on this he sat, with Aaron and Hur supporting his arms on each side. Moses does not pray for himself, but prays for the success of his people. Thats all you will hear in this ministry. Timmy, pray for me. Edmund pray for me. As a Christian, we are always called to pray for each other. What does it mean? How does it make sense? But dont imagine God as a corrupt city official that needs to be flooded with requests before he responds. Does it mean if we got 10,000,000 people to pray together, maybe then God will hear us. No. Whatever is good and right and true (Philippians 4:8) in your prayer is already the Holy Spirit praying in you.( Romans 8:26) So why do we pray for each other? Because we are connected to each other in God. When we pray for each other, we acknowledge the union we have for each other. St Thomas Aquinas~God is the sheer act of being it self. That means when I find my deepest centre, I find your deepest centre, and your deepest centre. We have that invinsible union together. This is what people mean by, Ill be with you in SPIRIT. Aquinas also teaches us that God is pleased to deign his graces precisely in response through this solidarity. In intercession we are bound to each other with and though God. Does God need our prayers? NO WE NEED OUR PRAYERS This explains much on that great tradition we have of praying to the saints. We extend this connection of requests of prayer that go beyond space and time and goes up right up to heaven. Why not? We need friends in high places. Thats why we pray with Mary and the saints are realized. CONTEPLATION~ the simplest and hardest to explain. In Adoration, we are mouth to mouth with God. In petition, we ask God. And in Intercession we recognize our 6

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 union with God. We rest in God. It is beyond our thoughts trying to speak to God, and above our needs and worshipping in toungesIn simple pure silence we are communing, fellowshipping with God. It is gazing to God with our hearts. St John Vianney asked a peasant what his prayer was when he visits the Tarbenacle I look at him, and he looks at me. Mystery comes from the word in Latin Moain the word mute comes from that. As a speaker we like to read, and talk, about God. But in this deepest type of prayer, we keep quiet. I love churches that stir the imagination, pictures and architecture that calls us up to heaven, we close my eyes. I love to hear and listen to great conceptualizations of God, great theologians and Church mystics that speaks of God and his great attributes. But in this deepest type of prayer, I keep my mind silent. Moain ~Shut your mouth. But we also shut our eyes. These eyes are ordered to this world. ~ But God isnt there. God isnt one of those things ~ Shut your eyes and we remind ourselves its not about seeing. Our senses even the movement so the mind. Thomas Morton said, about contemplative prayer. You find the place in you, where you are here and now being created by God. To pray in this form is to be with God and to be here and now being created by God. To rest in God, and even greater, to allow God to rest in us. Rules of Prayer 1. Faith Do you believe I can heal you? ~ Matt 9:28 Your faith has healed you. ~Luke 8:48, Mk 10:52, He couldnt do many works there because of lack of faith. ~Mark 6:5-6, Matt 13:58 Somehow, faith is that fulcrum in our relationship with God. What does faith doers? I think faith opens up that door. God is always there waiting for us what must we do? Open the door, provide that opening. Faith is more of trust. Radical trust. Believe. 2. Forgive your enemies So if you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar go at once and make peace with your brother ~ Matt5:23 Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us. ~Matt 6 :12 7

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 3. Pray with perseverance We become weak in prayer when we dont get what we want. St Paul teaches us = Pray constantly. ~ 1Thess 5:17 How Jesus prayed? ~ Hebrews 5:7. Ask, and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ~Matt 7:7 You do it in season and out. If we get immediate feedback or not. Exercise, Sports, Studies, Work. Persevere! Look at Mother Theresa, she went for years with the absence of God. She still persevered in prayers. Stillthats what was powerful about her life. 4. Pray in Jesus Name. John 14:12-13
to the Father.
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Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I

have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Hebrews 9:24 He is in heaven and in touch with us. IN and through Jesus. The father delights in answering our prayers through Jesus. Priest- Orans position. Look like Christ on the cross when he prays. The priest assumes his role as the in persona Christi in the person of Christ and he represents Jesus in our midst, by virtue of his ordination. And when he sees the priest, the Father cant resist but gives his graces for us. A way to check our prayers with Jesus name. What would Jesus pray for, what would Jesus do? His name is that check. Thomas Murtan ~Great Trappist Monk 1968 Someone wrote to Morton, give me one piece of advice to deepen my prayer life. Morton wrote back. Take the time thats very good advice. Whats the easiest thing in the world to do? Let it slide. One Sunday a week, daily before eating, Liturgy of the Hours? ~DAILY PRAYER? TAKE THE TIME. In season and out, if you get anything out of it or not We give time to what we love. Is that pornography? Is that the ministry? Is that your family? Your toilet? Or Liverpool? The God of the universe who is love will ask us on the da we die.. I love you and I want you to have that one thing you loved your whole life. Will that be God? Or Your toilet bowl? FIND YOUR PLACE OF PRAYER> We have bodies. We are ordered to this world. How we pray physically and Where we pray physically helps our prayer. Find a place that is conducive for prayer. Somewhere quiet, your toilet, your room, 8

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 the Church, or for drivers; The car is a great place to pray. For some of us, we get into a jam. Take down the rosary. Pray. MONKEY MIND calm the monkey mind! Repetitive prayer. We start at the beginning, and we end where we start. JESUS PRAYER~ Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Effecting our body and it calms our being. Eastern Church prays this prayer the whole day5 mins, 1 hour, 3 hours or a whole day. When we cant focus. GO TO MASS!~ our generation took a bad teaching. When people set that it is optional, we made it a matter of indifference. We made it look like it was not important. When I started singing in the music ministry, I asked Ben, what about the shape of my mouth, does that matter? If he were to say that its ok. Dont worry about that. He is saying its not important. The sent the signal that the Mass is optional. ADORATION~ it is! Think of the times we adore God in the readings, psalms, and communion. Its the PETITION~ we join in petition for the whole Church in the mass asking for God all throughout the mass. We pray through Jesus name all the time! INTERCESSION~ There is a whole section of the mass that is intercession. CONTEMPLATION~ The whole of the mass is steeped in contemplative life. Think about the flow of the mass, the consecration, how the Blessed Sacrament is broken Optional? Go when you feel like it, go when you can? No wonder our prayer life is compromised. We compromised the mass. Its the source and summit of the Christian life. Its the easy friendship with the one who loves us. The rasing of our hearts and minds to God. So lets do it. Let us pray. THE BATTLE OF PRAYER CCC 2725 Prayer is both a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort. The great figures of prayer of the Old Covenant before Christ, as well as the Mother of God, the saints, and he himself, all teach us this: prayer is a battle. Against whom? 1. Against ourselves and 9

WEEK THREE : OF ONE HEART & MIND 2012 2. against the wiles of the tempter who does all he can to turn man away from prayer, away from union with God. We pray as we live, because we live as we pray. If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name. The "spiritual battle" of the Christian's new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer. I. Objections to Prayer
others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void. others reduce prayer to ritual words and postures Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they "don't have the time." Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.

some see prayer as a flight from the world in reaction against activism; but in fact, Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from life. Finally, our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer: discouragement during periods of dryness; sadness that, because we have "great possessions,"(Mk 10:32) we have not given all to the Lord; disappointment over not being heard according to our own will; wounded pride, unworthiness. To overcome these obstacles, we must battle to gain humility, trust, and perseverance.

II.

Humble Vigilance of Heart

The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction

Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if dies, it bears much fruit."(Jhn12:24) If dryness is due to the lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.(Lk8:6,13)

1 Peter 4:7-8

The end of all things is near. Therefore

be alert and of sober mind(SELF-CONTROLLED) so that you may pray.

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Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of
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sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. in its various forms.

Each of you should use

whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of Gods grace

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