Last night, I managed to get a half-way decent mental prayer – or meditation. I went to my blog site & clicked on the Mass Readings. I just listened to them because it was too drab to read.
Because I’m the priest of my domestic church, I need to get a jump start of spiritual juice every day. Otherwise, I’ll slide into selfishness, vice & sin and end up yelling at the kids & resenting my wife.
So, I struggle to make something out of this exercise. After listening to the word & nothing’s flowing, I resort to techniques.
The first technique, called Ignatian, works when one is in a thinking mode. One mulls over the reading & what the Lord might be saying. Then one responds first with words, then with actions.
The other way, called Sulpician, lends itself to feelings. One tries to feel what the Lord is feeling & uses this in conversing with the Lord & then doing something about it.
Then I intercede for my wife & kids. That’s what priests do – become a go-between God & man.
It does not have to take a long time, The Salesians do 30 minutes, the Dominicans an hour & the Carmelites, 2 hours. Maybe we can start with 5 minutes & bring it up to 15 minutes.
It works for me so I thought I’d share.
