Three types of prayer.

Three types of prayer.
********************************

Prayer is an act of our union with God.

God is everywhere.

He is within us and we are in God.

But we may not be conscious of His being within us and our being in His hands. We are always in the hands of God.

When we are conscious  of God's being within us, we are spiritually united with Him and this union is called 'prayer'.

When a child is at home it may not keep looking at its mother, but as long as it is conscious of its her presence in the house it will keep playing anywhere in the house.

But the moment it begins to think that its mother is not at home, it will begin to weep.

Unlike our human mother who may or may not be with us, God is always with us and we are always in His Providence.

We must always be conscious of God's being within us, which means we must always be in a mood of prayer.

There are three types of prayer:

Vocal.

Meditative.

Contemplative.

Vocal prayer:

Vocal prayers include prayers such as Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be to and our own worded prayers.

They may be said either audibly or silently; what is important is that we should be conscious of what we are praying and to whom we are praying.

Simply said, we should be in the presence of God.

If we are conscious of what we do, there won't be distractions.

When we say 'Our Father' we must be conscious of God
being in and around us.

When we pray to Our Lady and other Saints we must think ourselves to be in their presence.

Their images can be used to help us to concentrate on them.

The quality of a vocal prayer is decided not by the number of words used but by the piety with which we say them.

Sometimes length may be an enemy to our concentration.

A short prayer with concentration and piety is better than long prayer full of distractions.

We use vocal prayer for:

Praising God.

Thanking Him for His kind Providence.

Begging for forgiveness.

and

Making petitions.

Meditation:

Reflecting or thinking about God is  meditation.

When we think about a person whom we love, our mind is full of the person, our love for each other, his nature, the actions with which we exchanged our love, our desire to love him more and so on.

When we meditate on God we simply think about God and about His love for us.

We think how God shows His love for us and how we should love Him in return.

Real love does not need words to show itself.

Just a look and smile is enough.

During meditation we talk with God not with words, but with our heart.

We make no petitions during meditation, but we offer our whole hearted thanks for whatever God has done for us.

When we meditate on the passion of Christ we follow Him on His way of the Cross weeping for our sins which caused His sufferings and begging for forgiveness. We don't make any petition for our welfare when we are with our suffering Lord.

Contemplation:

Contemplation is the highest form of prayer.

We rest quietly in the presence of God,  spending our time with Him in speechless silence.

We are alone with him who we know loves us.

We surrender ourselves to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.

Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."

Our gaze of faith is fixed on Jesus.

We look at Him and He looks at us.

When we are in contemplation before our Lord in the Tabernacle our focus is on Jesus.

His gaze purifies our heart.

The light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of His truth and His compassion for all men.

Contemplative prayer is the simple expression of the mystery of prayer.

We are silent with nothing in our heart but our Love, Jesus.

We are united with Him in deep contemplation.

We see Jesus and Jesus alone, nothing around us, not even our self.

Let us remember one thing:

Prayer is union of our heart with God.

Only vocal prayer requires words, coming from our heart.

Meditation and contemplation require only our heart to be united with God.

Lourdu Selvam.