How to pray?
Prayer as a Way to Your Soul
Sabine Eujen „Nobody can believe how powerful and strong a prayer
can be and how much it is able to achieve except for the one who has himself
experienced it and tried it." (Martin Luther) For young people a prayer is neither "in" nor "cool". It's none of those
superficial " I love you all" -declarations.
It's no problem to find arguments against praying: it's just pointless
prattle, it's an endless repetition of the same old words; why should I pray if
God knows my wants anyway? What is our answer to teenagers when they ask us why they should
pray?
When children do not just make a short plea for their PrayNet-partners abroad
but try to imagine who he or she may be, what they may feel, when they ask how
he lives and what he yearns for, what he suffers from, what moves his thoughts
and his feelings, a more intimate relationship is about to be born. When
children do not just make a short plea for their PrayNet-partners abroad but try
to imagine who he or she may be, what they may feel, when they ask how he lives
and what he yearns for, what he suffers from, what moves his thoughts and his
feelings, a more intimate relationship is about to be born.
Young people who pray are also on the way to their own soul. They present and
experience at the same time their own relationship to God, to themselves and
other people. By writing a prayer they profess their faith. A prayer is never
just an expression of thoughts and feelings, it's a conscious act between God
and man. Martin Luther extols prayer: „We cannot sufficiently emphasize the
power, the fruitfulness and the effectiveness of prayer. Let it seem ever so
unpretentious and simple - it is rich and far-reaching." Prayer can be abused, though. A meaningless repetition of prayers or pleas
for material well-being is clearly discouraged by the New Testament. If we do
nothing but talk we may not hear God's answer. At its worst, prayer can be regarded as a cure-all and can be mistaken as a
substitute for good actions. For example, when someone who is ill just prays for
recovery without consulting a doctor he does wrong. God cannot be forced into
solving our problems. Even uninterrupted, constant prayer is no guarantee for
the fulfillment of our wishes. A prayer is not a spell but a profession of our faith. Real praying leads to meeting God, other human beings and oneself. Taking part in PrayNet will open the possibility for children and
young people to experience or renew the spiritual depth of prayer or to renew
it.
Prayer - A Way to Peace and Reconciliation
Sabine Eujen PrayNet - what to pray for? „The way to peace which is shown by God is the firm
intention to respect other human beings' and other peoples' dignity together
with the willingness for alert and active brotherly and sisterly love. Everybody
can start doing so in his own life and environment. Everybody can join in
weaving this net of solidarity among people. The more there are of us the
further this net will grow into society and into the community of nations,
creating thus a public awareness among the inhabitants of the world." (Bishop
Reinhard Lettmann)
As God made peace with man through Jesus Christ, Christians all over the
world are called to build up lines of communication aiming at permanent and
peaceful communities. While praying we present our complaints of guilt and pain
in the world to God. Whoever asks God for forgiveness cannot put the blame for
this suffering on others any longer and whoever receives forgiveness cannot deny
his fellow-man forgiveness anymore. Prayer can allow the possibility of the
continuance on a common basis even in seemingly hopeless conflicts. Whoever
experiences God's peace - "which is peace beyond all reason" (Phil 4,7) -
through personal prayer will be enabled to take peaceful steps in his daily
life. Jesus has appealed to us to pray for the welfare of our enemies, not for
their ruin (Mt 5,44). Our friends become a part of our life. That's why a prayer
for our enemies always demands that we don't give way to separation and
hostility. In prayer an enemy may no longer be an enemy and may appear in a new
light, the light of God. Having exchanged prayers when they were young adults from all over the world
may not so easily be led to try to solve international conflicts violently. There is some hope that those contacts to other
young people will leave their positive marks on all participants.
"We don't know what causes changes in human minds,
who tears down walls between nations and human beings, whether the origin of
those peaceful revolutions are to be found in public demonstrations or perhaps
in prayers. We may at least trust in the effect of our prayers on those who
start such movements." (P. Anselm Grün OSB, 1990 as a reaction to the fall of
the Berlin Wall
A worldwide net of peace may grow from the
worldwide PrayNet.
PrayNet makes an offer to young people to leave
behind borderlines and to step forward on their way to become members of a
world-wide community working on reconciliation and peace.
Prayer as a way to world-wide solidarity
Sabine Eujen PrayNet - Why should we pray? "Support for developing countries is often seen as a
one-way street on which money and material goods are going south without
anything coming back on this road. However, those developing countries possess a
wealth of human and spiritual traditions which could help, enrich and even heal
us Europeans if we only were courageous and at the same time modest enough to
open our hearts to it." (Abbot Dr. Fidelis Ruppert OSB).
Exchanging prayers expresses the young people's wish for real partnership as
there is no difference between rich and poor when it comes to praying. Getting
in touch with young people from different cultures may show us how impoverished
we are spiritually in the materially rich western world. The deep religious
faith and spirituality of other nations is rooted in their close union with
nature. It is the rough and dangerous environment that makes man modest and
shows him his place in God's creation so that he subordinates his life to the
conditions given by his surroundings. He lives in accordance with nature and
respects his dependance on nature. While in the western countries we are
struggling for a holistic view of the world and our life this is the most
natural thing for people in Africa or Southern America. The world-wide exchange
of prayers enables young people of whatever denomination to learn from other
people's spirituality and to be enriched by it. Praying cannot be seen as isolated from Christian faith and Christian conduct
and thus prayers generate deeds. Praying and acting as a Christian are no
opposites but any real prayer can directly influence the individual's life and
conduct. The power of prayer needs to be put into practice. This will lead to
concrete results. Thus any act that has its origin in praying is a prayer in
itself. It is in this way, too, that we can talk about God's ways in the world:
God acts through us individuals.
As long as personal prayer is isolated from our daily life, as long as prayer
does not lead to Christian conduct it is abused. When prayer is nothing but a
way to flee from someone's depressing daily routine in order to find oneself in
an ideal world it is misunderstood. Prayer and acting in a Christian way, "Ora
et labora", belong together, as Saint Benedict so perfectly put it. Youth groups, church communities, parish priests or teachers are called upon
to explain the PrayNet to young people and enable them to participate. Many
young people don't know how to pray so they need some help. Those who want to
make praying a part of their life should be able to do so. Maybe the contacts
established by PrayNet will lead to tangible results but we want to leave that
to the participants' ideas and initiatives. A world-wide net of solidarity among
young people may be one result.
How can we pray?
Hermann Menth Praying is talking to God. Some prayers come to our mind spontaneously as we
know them by heart (e.g. Our Father) or we follow the words of the priest in a
church service. But how can we ourselves start to pray ? We have difficulty in
finding the right words. On the one hand it sounds trivial, on the other hand we
are afraid of producing an affectedly pious language which is unable to express
what we are trying to say. So here are a few suggestions which may help you to
pray in a way that suits you. What does it actully mean "to talk to
God"?
- One thing Jesus taught his disciples was that they can
speak to God in the way children speak to their parents when they fully trust
them. He is "our Father in Heaven" who wants us to be really happy so that we
can live a full life.
- Why should that be different for us ? We can equally entrust God with our
wishes and hopes, our misery and our sorrows as we have a deep faith in his
ability to see us and help us.
What is fitting for my prayer?
- Basically everything that is important to me,
individual concerns as well as matters of a larger importance.
- They should, in any case, have something to do with me and my life.
What about the structure or order?
Like in a letter you may take the following order as a guideline:
- Address: This expresses the relationship between God
and me , e.g. Dear God, Jesus, Our Father, You.
- Concern: I tell what I'm experiencing, what I'm
worried about, what makes me sad, angry or glad.
- My wish: I tell God what that has to do with him; I
can ask him, praise and thank him or just express my complaint.
- Conclusion: "Amen" at the end is like the signature that says once more
"yes" to all what was said before.
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