Episode 2: How to Pray and Meditate

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ONE

Welcome to the second episode of our journey to deeper friendship with Jesus and Mary in prayer. Today, we pray the Rosary from the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed the night before he suffered and died for us. So, let's begin in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. And let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

We are at Gethsemane. It is here that Jesus said to the eight apostles, stay awake and pray so that you will not be put to the test, they fell asleep. And when Peter was arrested, they all forsook him and fled. We don't want to be that way, when our trial, when our temptation hits, we do not want to forsake Jesus and flee. So here in this place, we have to learn how to pray.

So, let's begin in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let's call to mind all those we promised to pray for. You know, often I ask people, how's your prayer life? And many say good. I know that means bad. I say, tell me about your prayer and they say, well, you know, I say prayers all through the day, which means they tell God what they want all day long.

If you had a person who only came to you to tell you what they wanted constantly, would you consider them a real friend? Or would you rather just avoid that person? That's not the kind of friend we want to be with Jesus, but it's not, it's not a real friendship. I want you to have a deep friendship with Jesus so that when you die, he says, oh, I couldn't wait for you to get here so that we could be faced to face. Now, Teresa of Avila says that prayer is just friendship with God.

Prayer is taking time to be alone with Him who we know loves us. And that's what friends do, don't they? They spend time together talking, listening, just being together, Peter and the apostles. They didn't pray, they fell asleep in Gethsemane. And then Peter denied that he was even a friend of Jesus.

Two

Now by vocal prayer, we speak to God, our father, the Hail Mary, our own words, which is good by meditation. We listen to him, and meditation is like having coffee with a friend. We set a specific time and place enough time for a leisurely conversation. If you were going to have coffee with a friend, how much time would you give them five minutes?

You give them at least 30 times to talk, to share, to listen and understand, to just enjoy time together. Now, the great master of prayer is Teresa of Avila, and she gives three steps to listening to God in meditation. First, we read something or hear something from the word of God. That's why we give you a little something before each decade of the rosary and then whatever strikes you, that's what you think about because that's what the Lord is saying.

That's what he wants us to listen to, whatever captures your attention. But we must think about it. Thinking is hard, it's hard work and we so rarely do it and we let our feelings take over, but our lives are not supposed to be controlled by feelings, but by thinking. So, we think about what struck us from the word of God. And then we have to end every meditation with a resolution. This is what we do in the Rosary podcast and our lady knows us well that we have a small attention span.

So, she gives us just enough time when one our father ten Hail Mary’s to listen and think then she gives us a little break and then another little set to listen and think. So, think about what struck you during the decade and you'll be listening to God.

Three

Every time in prayer, every meditation should conclude with a resolution.

Something simple, practical concrete that you put into practice based on your meditation. Why? Listen to the words of Jesus. It is not those who say to me, lord, Lord, who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of the father. Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock, rain came down, floods, rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house and it did not fall.

It was founded on rock, but everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man. These are the words of Jesus. Who built his house on sand, rain came down, floods, rose, gales blew and struck that house and it fell and what a fall it had. Jesus is very clear. If you listen to my words and you don't put them into practice. It's of no use. You will not be my friend and when the storm comes, your house will fall. Jesus is very practical because it can’t just be up here…Oh, I know that. It must become our way of life. Who we are. See, we don't pray so that God will change. I know that's a surprise to you. We're not praying to change God. We're praying so that God can change us. But we will only change if we put into practice what He says. That's the resolution.

Four

Now you probably didn't expect me to bring this up in a rosary meditation, especially in the Cave of Gethsemane.

But I love Dion Sanders. He can remember him from the eighties and nineties, all pro football and baseball played in the Super Bowl and a World Series. He's now the coach for the for the Colorado Buffalos, but he's a great lover of Jesus. And I love this talk. He gave it to his players. He said, if you don't watch a film, you can't go to the higher level, you want to play in the Pros.

If you don't watch the film, you can't go to the higher level. Why do we watch films so that we can see our mistakes and we can see the strategy of the other team. We must watch the film of our life every day in a daily examination of conscience, we have to watch the film of our life by our memory for the last 24 hours. And we need to see our mistakes and learn from them because those are also the tactics of the enemy.

The devil knows what your weaknesses are, and he gets you to fall into them every day. But you don't watch the film. How can you go to the higher level? You gotta watch the film. You must do a daily examination of conscience. You must see where your mistakes are, and you have got to see the tactics of the devil. And then you need to make a game plan for the next day. A little examination of conscience, start with gratitude.

These are the things God I'm thankful to you for then find where you failed to do what was right and where you did what was wrong and then make a game plan. Watch the film, learn, grow. I want you to go to the higher level.

Five

You know what our mother Mary has come repeatedly over the years asking us to pray the rosary every day, not just once in a while or one or two days a week, but every day. But she wants us to go farther and to go farther. We must learn to become comfortable with silence. Mother Teresa said in the silence of the heart. God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak with you, then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace. But it all begins with silence. So, practice, cultivating times of silence and listening to God. And then you will be souls of deep prayer.

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Go to Episode 3: Pilate and the Indifference to Truth➡️