Praying Simply at Home - in the Pandemic and Beyond
The Carmelite Friars’ Community at Mount Carmel Retreat Centre are happy to offer you some practical guidelines and resources for praying in your homes during a time which is unsettling but also calls for a positive response. We hope they will open up new possibilities for you.
The ‘HOW’ of Prayer
The context and practice of prayer explained.
Finding a Rhythm to your Day in a time of Confinement
How do I structure my day in the present situation of social confinement so that my basic human and religious needs are met? What could the prayer component in my life look like in this?
What is prayer?
When I pray what kind of activity am I involving myself in? Am I alone or am I with others? If so who are they and what roles do we play? Fr. Eugene McCaffrey answers these questions in his simple but profound book: “Patterns of Prayer”. Patterns of Prayer is composed of an Introduction and 9 chapters below.
Additionally, purchase of the book can be made here
A Way to Pray
Personally
Personal prayer is an encounter with God, the “one whom we know loves us” (St. Teresa of Avila). She also tells us that it begins with “conversation”; we listen to and speak with God in faith. God is always present to us but we need to prepare to meet Him by setting aside a place and time and by providing ourselves with words to address Him.
A Way to Pray
In a Group or with Family
Praying as a group involves all the elements that are involved in praying personally (see left). Added to these, the group needs to be gathered and organized so that the prayer together can be inclusive, respectful of all and reverent before God. This involves special preparation.
The ‘WHAT’ of Prayer
Some material to “provide you with words” when you come to pray.
Praying with a Carmelite
The Carmelite Saints have the gift of making God accessible, of enabling an encounter.
Thérèse of Lisieux was a “master” at conversing with God in a simple way. Her book, “The Story of a Soul” is written in this style. When we read it meditatively we “slip into” an awareness of God. We present you here with twenty-nine sheets with extracts from the book arranged in a format suitable for prayer.
Praying with a Poem
The poet plumbs the depths of the human spirit. When this is combined with a living faith in God the poem he or she composes is a word rich in the capacity to inspire prayer. To do this we provide here some religious poems.
Praying with the Prayers of the Mass
In this time of “social confinement” we have been deprived of the privilege of participating in the celebration of the Mass. This has led to the rediscovery of “The Prayer of Spiritual Communion” which we present to you here. In the future we will also offer to you here the opportunity to pray with some of the great prayers of the Mass.