Praying with Young People

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• Praying with Young People

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Praying with Young People

• What is Prayer?

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What is prayer?

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What is prayer?

• Why do people pray?
• When do you pray?
• How do you pray?
• Where do you pray?
• How easy is it for you to pray?
• Who taught you to pray?
• When was the last time you prayed?
• How did it feel?

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Why pray?

• Jesus prayed
• 40 days in the wilderness
• Taught us to pray and about prayer
• Before choosing his disciples and at key times in
  his ministry
• In the Garden of Gethsemane
• On the Cross

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The Lords Prayer

• The saying of the Lords Prayer by the newly
  confirmed with the rest of the people is also of
  very great importance because it is the Spirit
  who prays in us, and in the Spirit the Christian
  says Abba, Father.

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Luke 112-4

• Jesus was praying in a certain place and after he
  had finished, one of his disciples said to him,

Lord teach us to pray, as John taught his
disciples.
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He said to them,
When you pray, say
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Father, hallowed be your name.
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Your kingdom come.
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Give us each day our daily bread
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And forgive us our sins
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For we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
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And do not bring us to the time of trial.
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St Thérèse of Lisieux

• For me, prayer is a surge of the heart it is a
  simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of
  recognition and of love, embracing both trial and
  joy.

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St John Damascene

• Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to
  God or the requesting of good things from God."

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St Augustine

• The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well
  where we come seeking water there, Christ comes
  to meet every human being.
• It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a
  drink. Jesus thirsts his asking arises from the
  depths of God's desire for us.
• Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the
  encounter of God's thirst with ours. God thirsts
  that we may thirst for him.

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Rooted in Prayer

• When we seek the face of Jesus, we echo the words
  of the disciples who asked him to teach them to
  pray. As we do so, we discover that prayer
  develops that conversation with Christ which
  makes us his intimate friends.
• Growing Together in Christ. para 25
• We have to remember that we are in Gods time and
  in his hands, which is why prayer is so
  important.
• Growing Together in Christ. para 54

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Why is prayer important?

• it celebrates and deepens young people's
  relationship with Jesus Christ through the
  bestowal of grace, communal prayer and liturgical
  experiences
• it awakens their awareness of the spirit at work
  in their lives
• it incorporates young people more fully into the
  sacramental life of the Church, especially
  eucharist
• it nurtures the personal prayer life of young
  people and it fosters family rituals and prayer.

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How to Pray

• Look at the cards
• Which type of prayer do you use most often? Why?
• Which type of prayer do you not use very often?
  Why?
• Which type of prayer would you like to know more
  about?
• Are there any others ways of praying with young
  people? Add these to the blank cards.

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How to Pray

• Introduce young people to a variety of prayer
  experiences
• Symbols and images
• Rituals
• Music
• Scripture Texts
• Prayers of the Church

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Symbols and Images
language
gestures
actions
signs
silence
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Rituals and Symbolic Actions
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Music

• "Address . . . one another in psalms and hymns
  and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to
  the Lord with all your heart." (Ephesians 519)
• "He who sings prays twice. (St Augustine)
• The harmony of signs (song, music, words, and
  actions) is all the more expressive and fruitful
  when expressed in the cultural richness of the
  People of God who celebrate. (CCC 1158)

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Music

• Singing Psalms and hymns
• Traditional Church music
• Gregorian chant
• Taizé chants
• Classical Music
• Gospel Music
• Worship Music
• Their own Music!

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Scripture

• Use the Sunday Readings!
• Lectio Divina
• Guided reflections
• Biblical Prayers
• Magnificat, Benedictus etc
• Question of the Week (shared at home)

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The Examen

• 1. Become aware of Gods presence.
• 2. Review the day with gratitude.
• 3. Pay attention to your emotions.
• 4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from
  it.
• 5. Look toward tomorrow.

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1. Become aware of Gods presence.

• Look back on the events of the day in the company
  of the Holy Spirit. The day may seem confusing to
  youa blur, a jumble, a muddle.
• Ask God to bring clarity and understanding.

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2. Review the day with gratitude.

• Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship
  with God. Walk through your day in the presence
  of God and note its joys and delights.
• Focus on the days gifts. Look at the work you
  did, the people you interacted with.
• What did you receive from these people?
• What did you give them?
• Pay attention to small thingsthe food you ate,
  the sights you saw, and other seemingly small
  pleasures. God is in the details.

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3. Pay attention to your emotions.

• One of St. Ignatiuss great insights was that we
  detect the presence of the Spirit of God in the
  movements of our emotions.
• Reflect on the feelings you experienced during
  the day.
• Boredom? Elation? Resentment? Compassion? Anger?
  Confidence? What is God saying through these
  feelings?

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4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from
it.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to something
  during the day that God thinks is particularly
  important.
• It may involve a feelingpositive or negative.
• It may be a significant encounter with another
  person or a vivid moment of pleasure or peace. Or
  it may be something that seems rather
  insignificant.
• Look at it. Pray about it. Allow the prayer to
  arise spontaneously from your heartwhether
  intercession, praise, repentance, or gratitude.

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5. Look toward to tomorrow.

• Ask God to give you light for tomorrows
  challenges.
• Pay attention to the feelings that surface as you
  survey whats coming up.
• Are you doubtful? Cheerful? Apprehensive? Full of
  delighted anticipation?
• Allow these feelings to turn into prayer. Seek
  Gods guidance. Ask him for help and
  understanding. Pray for hope.

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Praying with the Church

• Liturgy of the Hours Morning and Evening Prayer

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Praying with the Church

• The Prayers of the Mass

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Praying with the Church

• The Saints
• St Francis of Assisi
• St Ignatius of Loyola
• St Teresa of Avila

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Top Tips!

• Make prayer a regular occurrence in your
  gatherings
• Encourage a variety of different ways of praying
• Get the young people to plan and lead prayer
  times
• Encourage the parish to pray with and for young
  people
• Spend time in prayer and developing your own
  prayer life

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Pope Benedict XVI to young people

• This is the message I want to share with you
  today. I ask you to look into your hearts each
  day to find the source of all true love. Jesus is
  always there, quietly waiting for us to be still
  with him and to hear his voice. Deep within your
  heart, he is calling you to spend time with him
  in prayer.

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• But this kind of prayer, real prayer, requires
  discipline it requires making time for moments
  of silence every day. Often it means waiting for
  the Lord to speak. Even amid the busy-ness and
  the stress of our daily lives, we need to make
  space for silence, because it is in silence that
  we find God, and in silence that we discover our
  true self.

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• And in discovering our true self, we discover the
  particular vocation which God has given us for
  the building up of his Church and the redemption
  of our world.

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Contact details

• Dave Hill
• Advisor for Youth Ministry
• Department for Pastoral Formation
• Park Place Pastoral Centre,
• Winchester Road, Wickham, PO17 5HA
• dhill_at_portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
• Tel [phone]