The Mass and Vocal Prayers
The Mass is the highest form of prayer this side of heaven. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. The Liturgy of the Hours is also a precious gift – the official prayer of the Catholic Church that helps us to sanctify different times of the day and the liturgical year in union with the whole Church. Along with such public prayer, the Church also encourages us to develop our personal prayer lives – to find time each day to enter into intimate conversation with the One who loves us with an infinite love.
Vocal prayers like the Our Father, Hail Mary and Grace before Meals are an important part of a Catholic Christian's life, as are prayers of thanksgiving, praise, contrition and petition. But in addition to these more active ways of praying, the Lord also calls us to a receptive kind of prayer, where we quietly place ourselves in His presence and allow Him to act – and to warm our hearts with His tender love. A young Fr. Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) once wrote: "For our salvation we are meant to rely on receiving." As Scripture reminds us, Jesus is the Vine, and we are His branches (cf. John 15:5).
Adoration, Rosary and the Jesus Prayer
Spending time outside of Mass adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament – where the resurrected Lord is truly present in his body, blood, soul and divinity – is an especially powerful way of practicing this more receptive kind of prayer. "How great is the value of conversation with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for there is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness!" (Pope Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei). Many also find that the rosary brings them into a receptive state if they pray it meditatively, contemplating Jesus through the eyes of Mary. Eastern Christians have another custom, which is to repeat the Jesus Prayer as a mantra throughout the day, in order to enter into a more receptive state of prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Using Your Imagination
St. Ignatius of Loyola developed another powerful approach to prayer – one that asks us to use God's gift of the imagination. In Ignatian prayer, we meditate on a scene in the Gospels and use our imagination to place ourselves in that scene. For example, we can read the 13th chapter of St. John's Gospel and imagine that we are ourselves are in the Upper Room at the Last Supper. We can imagine that we are in the place of St. John as he rests his head against the chest of Jesus. We can imagine that we can smell the roasted lamb being shared at the meal; we can hear the sound of the apostles sipping from the cup which Jesus shares; we can taste the flavor of the wine in the cup; and most importantly, we can imagine that we see the eyes of Jesus and the gaze of love in those eyes. All of these steps are meant to help us enter into a heart to heart "conversation with Christ" – which is St. Theresa of Avila's favorite definition of Christian meditation. (She is considered to be one of the great teachers of prayer in the history of the Catholic Church).