Prayer: A Personal Response to God’s Presence by Armand M. Nigro, S.J.

My summary notes:

Prayer is a personal response to God’s loving presence.

What God wants to say to us is far more important for us than anything we may have to say to Him. And God longs to speak and communicate Himself to us and He invites us to listen and receive!

Since prayer is a person-to-person communication with God, if I am thinking about God or the life of Christ and what He has done, that is holy, meritorious, good and helpful for prayer; but it is not essentially prayer.

Prayer is when “He” becomes” You”

We must empty and abandon ourselves to His presence and movement so that in silence HE can communicate Himself to us the way He prefers.

This prayer will always work!

3 aspects of genuine prayer:

Acknowledge God’s presence – to wake up and face reality; to realize that He is present to me. We speak and respond only when we are aware of some kind of personal presence. Aware of the loving, creative, sustaining, divinizing presence of God.
Thank God for His presence – gratitude is an obvious, spontaneous outflow of being aware of what God is and is doing for us. An awareness of receiving from God.
A loving response for God’s presence – Genuine love, says St. John, means first of all not that we love God, but that God first loves us.

Tips:

15-30 minutes of daily being alone with God.

5 “P’s” of Prayer:

Passage – from Scripture. Choose before you begin, 5-10 verses, to fit your mood & your need.
Place – private spot alone with God.
Posture – settle yourself peacefully. However you pray better. Be open to experiment
Presence – respond to God’s presence. Peacefully remind yourself how present He is to you. Never rush this. Stay with it. Don’t “junk-up” your prayer with too many words.
Passage – from Scripture.