Outside Mass: Create the space and the time and use your own words.

In prayer speak to God as you would to another person, as you would to a friend using your own words. What do you speak about when you meet your friends? When you’re on a sleep-over? When you meet a friend for coffee or lunch?

That’s the stuff of prayer, talk to God as you would to a friend. Don’t be afraid to speak audibly (out loud) if it helps.

It may help if you’ve got something to focus on, an image or a statue, or from wherever you are situated, to turn toward the Tabernacle* in your local church. Ideally, visit the Tabernacle. Empty out your heart and mind in words… over time this will lead to a profound silence in which the soul and God communicate without and beyond words.

In Christian prayer it is vital to grasp that God has shown himself in Jesus… all that God wants us to know is to be found in Jesus. Therefore, we must pay close attention to the teachings of Jesus which are found in the four books of the Gospels.

A convenient way to access the teachings of Jesus is by paying close attention to the Sunday Gospels… a good reason to go to Mass on Sundays!

Read each Gospel passage over and over… sit with it… through the Gospel passages Christ will teach you about the inner workings of Heaven, of God Himself.

* Re-read Understanding the Mass Part 2 to get this.

In (or during) Mass: Be aware of where you are!

You are taking the body and blood of Jesus – the very person of Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity – and offering him to the Father.

You’re standing at the foot of the Cross offering him and you’re there as one of the people who understands what’s happening – the cost of universal forgiveness – and your presence brings great consolation to Heaven.

Then in Communion you’re already at the tomb, already sharing in the power of his resurrection as he gives himself – and all his work – to you in Holy Communion.

Believing God is everything… then awareness.