1. Prayer: A Conversation with God
Diocese of Philadelphia, PA| October,
Michel Therrien, S.T.L., S.T.D
Mike Gutzwiller
President, Institute for Pastoral Leadership
Diocese of Pitsburgh
Director of Curriculum Development Sophia Institute for Teachers

2. Called to Communion: Prayer as Intimacy with God
Session 1
Called to Communion: Prayer as Intimacy with God

3. Why Pray? What Good Does it Do?
Communion with God
Transforming the world inside ourselves

4. Who is this God of Ours?
“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.”
Luke 15:20

5. What does Jesus see?
Pope Francis, Lumen fidei, no. 18: “In faith, Christ is not simply the one in whom we believe, the supreme manifestation of God’s love; he is also the one with whom we are united precisely in order to believe. Faith does not merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself sees them, with his own eyes: it is a participation in his way of seeing.”

6. Meeting the Gaze of Jesus
Affirmation: I love You
Reassurance: Martha, you are worried . . .
Consolation: My Good and faithful servant
Forgiveness: Your sins are forgiven
Peace: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you
Direction: Go and do likewise
Challenge: You have heard it said

7. The Key
Silence

8. Deepening our Communion with Him
Are we disposing ourselves to his daily visits?
Do we rest in the Lord, search for his gaze in silence?
Do we spend time meditating on his Word?
Do we cultivate the practice of recollection?
Do we visit him interiorly throughout our day?
Do we ask our Mother to bring us to him? Do we behold her face?

9. What Jesus teaches about Prayer
In solitude
Filial entrustment
To the Father
Persistent confidence
Thanksgiving
Vigilance
Forgiveness
In His name
Conversion of heart
In the Spirit

10. Movements of Prayer Adoration Petition Praise Thanks-giving
Intercession
Petition

11. Expressions of Prayer Contemplative Meditation Rote prayer Will Mind
Body

12. Struggle in Prayer Presumption Dryness Distraction Acedia
Humility
Meekness
Presumption
Perseverance
Patience
Dryness
Ignore
Self-offering
Distraction
Devotion
Vigilance
Acedia
Trust
Abandonment to God’s Will
Lack of Faith

13. Session 2
Spirituality and the
Soul’s journey to God

14. The Spiritual Life is About . . .
The soul’s journey to God
A developmental process of growth
Building relationship with God
The restoration of the divine likeness; salvation
Participation in the divine life

15. The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life
Dark Night
of the Spirit
Dark Night of the Senses
Purgative
Illuminative
Unitive
Conversion to Christ

16. New Age Spirituality Harnessing spiritual energy
Mental techniques for managing anxiety
Transcending the problem of suffering
Focusing inward

17. Prayer is Essential to Spiritual Growth
CCC, 2561: You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). Paradoxically our prayer of petition is a response to the plea of the living God: ‘They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water’ (Jer. 2:13)! Prayer is the response of faith to the free promise of salvation and also a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God (John 19:28; Is 12:3).

18. A Word about the Psalms
2587 “The Psalter is the book in which the Word of God becomes man's prayer. In other books of the Old Testament, ‘the words proclaim [God's] works and bring to light the mystery they contain.’ The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express and acclaim the Lord's saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God's work and man's response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how to pray.