Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Letters from the Edge of Elfland

Home
Catholic
How I Pray: Introduction

How I Pray: Introduction

Last updated on: February 9, 2015 at 7:49 pm by David Russell Mosley

How I Pray: Introduction 2015-02-09T19:49:35-04:00 David Russell Mosley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

David Russell Mosley

Ordinary Time

8 February 2015

The Edge of Elfland

Hudson, New Hampshire

Dear Friends and Family,

As the snow continues to fall, and I have left the house very infrequently, my reading, and especially blog catch-up, have increased. I was going through the most recent blog posts and came across this post from God and the Machine: How I Pray: The Very Reverend Archimandrite John Panteleimon Manoussakis. Thomas McDonald has been asking various, and primarily Roman Catholic, theologians and priests about how they pray. My own prayer life has seen some reinvigoration and so I was drawn to these posts, reading several of them after Archimandrite John’s. I was intrigued by McDonald’s questions. He asks:

Who are you?

What is your vocation?

What is your prayer routine for an average day?

How well do you achieve it, and how do you handle those moments when you don’t?

Do you have a devotion that is particularly important to you or effective?

Do you have a place, habit, or way of praying?

Do you use any tools or sacramentals?

What are your relationship with the Rosary?

Is there one particular book or spiritual work that has been particularly important to your devotional life?

What is your current spiritual or devotional reading?

Are there saints or other figures who inspire your prayer life or act as patrons?

What is one prayer you find particularly powerful or effective?

Have you had any unusual or even miraculous experiences in your prayer life?

I’d like to see ______________________ answer these questions.

I hope this week to answer at least some of these questions. I feel a bit strange setting myself these questions. McDonald primarily asks those who are, in some sense, worthy of answering these questions. They are, seemingly, particularly holy. I know that I am not. However, I hope that by trying to answer some of these questions myself I will be forced to think more and more intentionally about my prayer life. If this process of self-reflection is beneficial to those who read these letters, all the better. But time spent thinking about how I pray to the Creator and King of the cosmos is not time wasted.

Sincerely yours,

David

Being a Catholic Evangelical

Previous Post

February 4, 2015

Darwin's Pious Idea Goes on Sale

Next Post

February 11, 2015 How I Pray: A Reflection

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Secular Age Advent Apologetics Atheism Beauty Being a Catholic Evangelical Being Catholic Being Deified: Poetry and Fantasy on the Path to God Blogging Book Reviews C. S. Lewis Catholic Imagination Catholic Social Teaching Catholicism Christmas Church Calendar Church Fathers Church Life Community Conferences Cosmology Creation Curdled Words Deification Distributism Easter Economics Education Epiphany Essay Extracts Eucharist Faerie Faeriean Metaphysics Fatherhood Films Folk Liturgy Food and Drink G. K. Chesterton Harry Potter J. R. R. Tolkien Jove King Arthur Language Lent Life Literature and Poetry Liturgy Medieval Theology Music My Publications Mythology On the Edges of Elfland Ordinary Time Ordination Parenthood Parish Patristic Theology Pentecost Politics Prayer Racism Radical Orthodoxy Restoration Movement Sacramental Ontology Saints Science Sex and Sexuality Sophiology Stories The Inklings The Radical Catholic Reimagination of Everything Theologians in the Church Theopoetics Thesis Research Uncategorized University of Nottingham What I'm Reading Writing

Select a Month December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz