St. Therese says: “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.” St. Paul tells us to “PRAY WITHOUT CEASING” (1 Thess. 5:17). If we couple those two quotes with the Scripture verse, “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19), we have all the wisdom we need for today’s discussion.
There was a Sunday Mass where Fr. Patrick preached. I found his homily amazing and heart-wrenching. He spoke of how often we reject God’s love; how often our actions, or lack thereof, hurt God. We ALL know what it feels like to be rejected, he implored. No one wants to feel rejected. But God Himself is constantly rejected by us. How do we know this? Fr. Patrick said because we see rejection itself sprawled across the wood of the Cross. Christ chose to take on rejection so that we may know his love and love him in return. Fr. Patrick implored us to not reject God’s love by failing to follow the 10 commandments, by missing Mass on Sundays, and by failing to pray everyday. I left Mass with a renewed sense of love for God and commitment to “lift my heart” up to Him more often, so as to acknowledge his love more often.
I find myself getting caught up in fear very easily. Do you? We look around the world, we turn on the news. Illnesses run rampant, war is a threat. I fear for the future and I get overwhelmed very easily, finding anxiety in my heart. Then we have this verse from the Mass readings this past weekend: “Have no anxiety at all, but in all things, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make known your requests to God. Then the peace of God that supasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7
St. Paul gives us a formula: if we desire the peace of Christ, we must turn our hearts to prayer. Why do I forget this! If you’re anything like me, though, prayer is compartmentalized and often forgotten. It is usually a quick, “Hey God, help me out here” and I don’t often take the time to CONVERSE with God. Or, it’s a 15 minute adoration session here, a daily mass there. But “pray without ceasing?” Or to model Mary’s virtue of “constant mental prayer”? I have found that difficult! I am not a saint or a nun cloistered in a convent all day and I am not Mother Mary, so how the heck can I have “constant mental prayer”?
Well, if you think about it we all carry an interior life, which we can say is like an intimate conversation with ourselves. Not that we are literally talking to ourselves, but we do consider present problems and think about them often in our mind, and we recall past events, and look ahead to coming things. This is a normal process. I am always talking to myself, I am always weighing options in my mind, creating to-do lists and mini-goals to reach throughout the day.
This very natural process can be spiritualized, so that it is turned into a loving awareness of God and of Mary, to whom we often comment on whatever we are doing, even on commonplace, routine things, or on things going on about us. We cannot explicitly think of God or of Mary at every moment, but we can to a considerable extent, and the habit of prayer, aka conversing with God, will grow in time.
I found an article online by Rev. William Most who says, “We will resemble a child who busies himself in the same room as his mother: he does not always explicitly think of her, but he is always conscious of her presence, and he often comments to her on what he is doing or asks her help. In meditation, however, even though we are not at every moment calling on Mary, yet her help is constantly supporting us, for all graces come through her”
To have “constant mental prayer” means to not compartmentalize our life: I will have my prayer time for 30 mins each day. Then I work for 6 hours, watch TV for 2 hours, etc. But that OUR WHOLE LIFE IS A PRAYER. All of our mundane tasks may be offered to God. Everything we do is offered to God. In the midst of all we do, we turn our hearts to God, at various moments, and speak with him, talk to him, praise him, adore him.
If we desire to “pray without ceasing” or to “turn our hearts” to God more often throughout the day, we will see the act of washing dishes a chance to exercise mental prayer. We will offer up the filing at work as an act of love for God, even though we are sick and tired of doing it day in and day out. We will try our best to turn our thoughts toward God or things of God more often. For example, I often will find myself daydreaming about some of the most random things! Maybe, when we catch ourselves daydreaming about the next haircut we want, or our “dream house”, we can turn our thoughts toward a Gospel story, or repeat Hail Mary’s while we actually think about the words we are praying.
Now, I want to add, this cannot be an excuse to get rid of or omit daily, scheduled prayer time. Those are very important. We need time daily and weekly to enter into meditation and contemplation. I am so guilty of this! “I pray throughout the day, so I don’t need to schedule prayer time and commit to a structured prayer time.” We need both: spontaneous, constant mental prayer, and structured prayer time, where we are silent in the presence of the Lord. This may be a half an hour in a quiet place in your home, or it may be a holy hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament. We will see that these structured prayer times will fuel our constant mental prayer habit, and the mental prayer habit will help our structured prayer time.
Ok, now I would like to stop doing all the talking, and allow for you to pray with and read through these various Scripture passages about Mary. Keep in mind these two quotes as you read through the Bible: “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.” St. Therese of Lisieux;
“PRAY WITHOUT CEASING” 1 Thess. 5:17.
Each small group this week is going to read through and contemplate the various instances in Scripture where we see Mary praying. Here are the steps to follow for your group’s assigned Scripture verse:
- Begin with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide this process.
- Each person individually should read through the Scripture account two times. Read slowly. As you read, imagine what emotions Mother Mary must be experiencing as the story unfolds. Let your imagination work; there are no “right” or “wrong” ways to do this.
- Re-read the Scripture story out loud as a group. Discuss what everyone observed, keeping in mind that we are trying to draw out what we may learn about prayer from Mary.
- Choose one person to be a representative for our larger group discussion.
Your small group may be assigned one of the following passages:
- Luke 1:39-56
- Luke 2: 11-20
- Luke 2:41-52
- Acts 1:6-14
I would like to end with some practical tips to foster a constant mental prayer:
“In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” Rom. 8:26
You can just utter different prayers throughout the day, and you can get into the habit of praying, “Come Holy Spirit, Come Holy Spirit.”. That is a good way to put yourself in the presence of God throughout the day. The Holy Spirit will come! And he will guide you...
Here are some more practical tips:
-Turn music off in the car. Play the Rosary on CD or connect your phone. Listen to a spiritual CD.
-Pray while you do various chores.
-Begin the day with reading the daily Scripture verses for that particular daily mass. Then, throughout the day, you may refer back to the Gospel story or other passages. I like to sometimes try to memorize a quick line from one of the Psalms to say throughout the day.
-Pray the Rosary / Hail Mary’s while waiting in line at stores, or for appointments.
-Surround yourself with holy images at home / work / car and greet the Lord / Mary or Saints in that image. Stick Holy Cards in your car, etc.
-Pray with Holy Cards. I can be a very visual person. To have a holy image in front of me helps me to have a focused prayer time, even if for 5-10 mins. 
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