Why do you have to pray?
Why do you have to pray? Why do you have to breathe? Because otherwise I’d die.
–Gianfranco Ravasi (1942-
Fill our minds with prayer…
If we do not fill our mind with prayer, it will fill itself with anxieties, worries, temptations, resentments, and unwelcome memories.
–Scott Hahn (1957-
When we pray from the heart…
Here are 10 positive things that happen EVERY time we pray from the heart:
1. We Receive…
2. We Follow God’s Will…
3. We Profess Our Faith …
4. We Imitate Christ – …
5. We Enter Into A Relationship With God …
6. We Increase Our Chances For Salvation …
7. We Obtain What God Wants To Give Us…
8. We Practice Humility…
9. We Obtain Peace…
10. We Use Our Time Wisely…
Obviously, the prayer that I’m speaking of above is sincere, “from the heart” dialog with God. Going though the motions” or babbling rote phrases will not produce the above results. When we truly mean the words we pray, however, we can count on every one of these benefits. Remember this the next time you’re tempted to put off praying, thinking that it will do no good. There is no more productive activity we can do on this earth!
–Gary Zimak (5/17/13)
An authentic spiritual life…
To live an authentic Orthodox spiritual life, one must be faithful to the basics: daily prayer, the sacraments, the ascetical disciplines of fasting, abstinence and almsgiving, and feeding the mind and heart with holy reading. All of this must be done within the context of a lively and faithful church life and under the guidance of one’s spiritual father or confessor.
–James Deschene (Twentieth and Twenty-first Century)
Lift up the heart…
Following the greeting, “The Lord be with you,” which you know so well, you heard the words, “Lift up your heart.” Now the whole life of true Christians is a matter of lifting up the heart. To lift up the heart is a duty of Christians who are such in very fact and not in name alone. To lift up the heart — what does this mean? It means that you must trust in God, not in yourself since God is so superior to you. When you trust in yourself, your heart stays fettered to the Earth, not fixed on God. So when you hear the priest say, “Lift up your heart,” you respond, “We have lifted it up to the Lord.” See to it, then, that your response rings true,
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Reparation for our past faults and sins
Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
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