Thoughts on Prayer

Okay folks, I have a confession to make. I tend to be orthodox when it comes to prayer. I like to say Rosaries and read from the Liturgy of the Hours and have pretty much followed a traditional prayer life. Thus from my first visit to my community when I first heard "Live Jesus in our hearts" and the response "forever" to the creative and beautiful prayers led by fellow LV folk at orientation I was made a bit uncomfortable. It's not that anyone did anything wrong, but it was all so unlike what I was used to with prayer. At the beginning of the week I was very critical, but as the week continued I began to open up more to these new ways of praying and began to enjoy and look forward to our morning and evening prayers together. Upon my return home (as I didn't go directly to my site) I was still puzzling over my resistance to these different ways of praying and began searching the internet for some advice on Catholic prayer and came across the following quote:

"How to pray? This is a simple matter. I would say: Pray any way you like, so long as you do pray." - Pope John Paul II

When I read that it was like a revelation. It doesn't matter how you commune with God, so long as you genuinely try to open yourself up to the divine. The website with the quote has lots of different prayers and prayer techniques. You can access it here. But don't be like me; never let the methodology get in the way of the act of prayer! If something works for you, keep with it, if it doesn't work, try something else. Let the Spirit guide you.