Time for God Book Discussion Guide

Transcription

1 Time for God Book Discussion Guide Suggestions for your book discussion group time: You could begin with some sessions with Lectio Divina (see How to Pray a Gospel Reflection on the Program Support page of Rediscover-faith.org) to help group members learn meditation. Read the Sunday Gospel and sit for 3 minutes in silence, then have each person share something briefly that strikes them. Then sit for 3 more minutes in silence and allow whoever desires to do so to offer a prayer based on what is striking them. Each week give the group members a chance to share experiences from their actual time of prayer. Did they encounter Blessings? Struggles? Movements of the heart? At the end of each session allow for 5 minutes of silence and invite each member of the group to reflect on one thing they are going to take away from the session. Some examples: a commitment they are making; a truth they want to remember; or an action they want to take. Invite the group members to write down or otherwise record this take away (they could use the My Faith Life feature in the Rediscover: app!) and refer to this daily in the next week. Introductory notes: This short book on prayer by Fr. Jacques Philippe has the power to change your life. This book is for all those who want to be a better person by trying to embrace the life God created us to live. Fr. Philippe seeks to release the power of a relationship with Jesus in your life through a life of daily time with God. It is a short book, but the ideas in it are important and take time to digest, therefore it should not be read too quickly. It is also a book which must be put into practice. In order to get the intended benefit from this book, you must begin to pray daily. Reading the sections of this short book each week will not take much time. Therefore, in addition to time for reading, plan on spending at least 15 minutes each day in mental prayer (this term is explained extensively in the book). As Fr. Philippe will show you, this time of focused prayer each day has the power to bring you freedom and peace which surpasses understanding (Phil. 4:7).

2 Lesson 1 Understanding fundamentals of a prayer relationship. Pages: 7-23 Handout: Develop and distribute a simple one sheet that outlines the discussion group schedule and includes any necessary contact information Knowing what separates Christian prayer from other types of meditation Developing the fundamental attitudes which enable a prayer life 1. Why are you interested in learning how to pray? 2. Have you ever tried to develop a prayer life? If so what made it difficult? 3. When we are doing spiritual reading, we believe that the Holy Spirit is already at work in us, and certain things move us or strike our hearts, because the Holy Spirit is speaking through those very things. In these opening pages of this book, what struck you most in these pages by Fr. Philippe and why? What is God saying to you through these pages? 4. What is the difference between Christian Prayer and other forms of meditation (like yoga) and why do you think Fr. Philippe starts with defining this difference? 5. Fr. Philippe speaks about having faith in God s presence. Could you share a time when you experienced God s presence and the impact this had on you? 6. Human beings are complex creatures and we know that we often have mixed motives for doing things. What is purity of intention, and why is it so important for the Christian life? When you read about this, how does it make you feel and what might you do about that? 7. Our society promotes many virtues; discipline, hard work, and talent all get rewarded. However humility, which was so important to Jesus, is not often extolled. What is humility and why is it central to a life of prayer? Why might humility be a particularly difficult virtue to acquire in our society? Can you think of an example of a humble person you admire? What makes him or her humble? Spend 15 minutes each day in mental prayer, especially reflecting on the purity of intention with which you do the things that you do. Try to pause at different times during the day and notice the presence of God around you and within you.

3 Lesson 2 Fundamental attitudes of prayer and the Christian life. Pages: Handout: How to Go to Confession To grow in my desire for a real, committed, daily life of prayer To understand how prayer affects my whole life 1. Perhaps the greatest key to a life of prayer according to Fr. Philippe is fidelity - daily perseverance. From a practical standpoint, what makes it difficult for you to persevere in daily prayer? How can you help yourself to grown in perseverance? As a group, can you brainstorm ways to help each other to be faithful to your daily prayer? 2. Fr. Philippe is very strong in his insistence that a life of daily mental prayer is the key to holiness, why is this the case? Why is holiness not possible without prayer? 3. Perhaps the main objection to a life of prayer is the lack of time. Fr. Philippe points out that no one ever died of hunger because he or she did not have enough time to eat (see page 26). Can you honestly admit what keeps you from committing the time necessary to have a prayer life? What can you change to make a prayer life possible? 4. In a famous quote about his conversion, St. Augustine lamented his early life when he ignored God by saying: Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. St. Augustine points out that he was searching for happiness in external things, while all along God was in his heart crying out to him, but he could not hear his voice as he was so taken up with outside things. Why does our society seem to live habitually outside like St. Augustine did? Why is it difficult to truly be silent and begin to listen to God? Make a list in your life of things which cause you discouragement. Bring these things to your prayer time and ask God to begin to show you how he sees them and how you might begin see them differently. After spending time each day in prayer, go to confession and try to focus in your confession on the deeper attitudes which keep you from purity of intention. 5. Through a life of daily prayer you come to see more clearly. You begin to see yourself and your life through the eyes of God and your relationship with God. Fr. Philippe uses St. Theresa of Avila to point out that this is often difficult, because we see our weakness and our sin. What is the normal response to seeing your own weakness and sin and what is the Christian response to seeing this weakness and sin? How might a life of daily prayer help you grow in your use of the sacrament of confession? 6. Fr. Philippe mentions the Devil several times in this section, how does the Devil attempt to derail our prayer lives?

4 Lesson 3 Principles about how to use our prayer time Pages: Understand the centrality of God s loving action in prayer and how to respond to it Avoiding pitfalls in your prayer life 1. Many of us are practical people, so after reading two-thirds of this book you may be getting just slightly frustrated because Fr. Philippe has not given much practical advice about what to do in your time of prayer. Instead, he says very clearly that he is avoiding telling us to do this or pray like that (see page 49). Why does he so steadfastly refuse to give practical guidelines for prayer and instead give foundational principles? 2. Fr. Philippe points out that there are certain times in our life when prayer is easy and we don t need any advice. These are times when we find it easy to be in the presence of the Lord, his word or his love speaks to our hearts freely, and we are able to love him with ease. Could you share a time when you think you may have experienced something like this? How did this time help you grow spiritually? What happens when it is not easy like this? In your prayer time one day this week, notice the thing that is causing you the greatest concern or worry and try to surrender it to God. As St. John of the Cross suggested, (see page 64) speak to God about this situation the way you would speak to a loving Father. Ask God to show you how he sees this situation. 3. Ultimately, prayer is more about being with God in love than it is about doing anything. Why is this difficult for us? 4. Fr. Philippe makes it clear that our prayer time will more and more reveal our own poverty. Why is this the case and why is it so difficult to let ourselves be loved in our poverty? 5. How does prayer affect our love and how do we grow in love? How does this affect your daily life? Pause at some moment in the day every day this week and for 5 minutes adore the presence of God in your heart, asking God to reveal his presence there (see pages 62-65). 6. Fr. Philippe mentions the importance of the humanity of Jesus, and how central this is for a Christian life of prayer. How do we explore Jesus humanity as it is shown us in the Gospels? Can you think of ways to do this in meditating on scripture? Have you ever experienced this?

5 Lesson 4 Objective: The development of the life of prayer Pages: Understanding the signs of a deep life of prayer 1. God is always directing our lives of prayer to greater simplicity and more passivity. Why is this the case? What are ways that you complicate your prayer unnecessarily? What might you do to let God be more active in your prayer? 2. Based on what Fr. Philippe has been describing in the life of prayer, can you give a definition of a contemplative? Why is it necessary for every Christian to seek to become a contemplative? 3. Fr. Philippe points out that in a certain sense [God] seeks to wound us even more than to heal us (see page 73). What does this mean and why does God do this? 4. Although certainly someone who is holy is growing in freedom from sin, especially serious sin. Why can we not equate holiness with being free from all weakness and sins? 5. Fr. Philippe points out that we live in spiritually impoverished times and therefore God is acting more powerfully and quickly in our times. Do you agree? What are signs of this? 6. There is always an ecclesial dimension to our prayer because there is always a relationship between contemplation and mission. What does that relationship look like in your life? How does your prayer affect your involvement in the Church? In your prayer time, follow example of St. Theresa of Avila and imagine Jesus standing before you and speak to him as you would a friend. Ask God in your prayer time if there is one person he wants you to reach out to this week, as you bring people in your life to mind, notice what happens in your heart as you discern how God might want you to reach out to some person. Do you feel anger? Joy? Hurt? Compassion? What is God asking you to do?

6 Lesson 5 Developing a life of prayer Pages: Evaluating your use of time in order to center your life on God Begin to take practical steps to become a person of prayer This is the shortest chapter of the book, still it forms its own discussion session because it offers the readers a chance to look at their entire lives and begin to see them in light of the goal of becoming a person of prayer. Here we see that the goal of this book is to help us begin a spiritual life, not just learn what to do in certain times of prayer. 1. Fr. Philippe points out that there is no time that is automatically better for prayer than another, but rather one should look at the rhythm of one s life and weigh the obligations and priorities, then one should pick the best time that one can find given those obligations and priorities. What is the daily rhythm of your life and is it ordered to a real relationship with God? Or is your prayer something you are trying to squeeze in? If you could schedule your life any way you want, when would you pray and why? Given this may not be possible what is the best time to pray? Go to daily Mass one or more days this week, and see how this affects your prayer time and your rhythm of life. Talk to someone you know who lives a spiritually ordered life, and ask them about how they prioritize their time. 2. Spend some time this week listing the things that are most important in your life. Then reflect on what you spend the most time doing. How can you give priority time to the things which are most important? What is one step you can make towards ordering your life to those things which are most important? 3. Where do you like to pray and why? 4. How does the position of your body affect your prayer? Is it possible to be too comfortable in prayer? 5. What is the role of silence in your life? Do you have time for silence outside of your time of prayer? 6. Where are you living in your spirit during the day? Do you live most often in practical things, or does your life enable you to dwell in with God in your heart? What is one thing you could do to allow you to dwell more with God on a daily basis?

7 Lesson 6 Methods of mental prayer Pages: Learning some of the ways that the richness of the Catholic Tradition teaches about prayer Finding your way to pray 1. Fr. Philippe keeps emphasizing two central themes in this book, discuss their importance: a. Freedom in your life of prayer to follow where the Lord is leading. b. Perseverance in your life of prayer even when things get difficult. 2. What is the difference between thinking about or reading a passage and meditating on a passage? How do you let the passage of scripture or a spiritual book serve your relationship with God in prayer and not just growing in intellectual knowledge? 3. Fr. Philippe often speaks about prayer of the heart. What does he mean by that? Can you share an experience of prayer of the heart? 4. Why is spiritual reading, either reading scripture or another spiritual book, so important for the Christian life? What is your favorite spiritual book and why? 5. Fr. Philippe speaks about the Jesus Prayer and the Rosary as poor, simple and humble prayers, yet he says that they are very advantageous spiritually. What is it about this poverty and simplicity that helps bring us into union with God? What are ways that we make our prayer too complex? Share with someone this week about how important spending time in prayer is to you and why. Pick a spiritual book you want to read from Catholic Tradition or about the saints and schedule some time to carefully read it in the coming weeks. There are several recommended books posted at Rediscoverfaith.org. You may also find some suggestions for books on saints there. 6. Try the method of prayer proposed by Fr. Liebermann (see pages ) for three days in prayer. What did you find helpful and what did you find difficult? What might the steps of your method of prayer be?

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