The Easiest Way to Pray with Scripture | RAP

I find the easiest way to pray with Scripture is to use a method I call “RAP”

The 1st Step is to Read.

If we want to hear God in our prayer, the first step is reading well.

Read the passage as if it is your 1^st time, your last time, and your only time.

Read it like poetry. Read it with wonder, with care, with attention.

Read it expecting God to speak to you personally. He has something to say to you.

The 2nd Step is to Apply.

Apply” is a way to describe meditation.

“Meditation is a prayerful quest engaging thought, imagination, emotion, and desire” (CCC 2723).

Ask yourself questions!

How does this passage apply to:
- myself? to how I’m feeling emotionally? spiritually? physically?
- others? to my family? friends? co-workers? classmates? someone who pushes my buttons?
- to God? to Jesus? the Father? Holy Spirit? Mary?

“Apply the text wholly to yourself; apply yourself wholly to the text.” – Johannes Bengel, 1687-1752

The 3rd Step is to Pray.

Pray is the time when we start to talk through our questions, puzzlement, wonder, fear, complaints, and happiness regarding the things we discover on the sacred page. Grounded on the full teaching of the Church, pray is a time to wrestle with God in prayer (see Gn 32:24-32).

An Example

Here’s an example that I used for a passage from Philippians 4:4, in which I give a brief example of how I tried to “apply” what I read and then “pray” with it.