 Writers' Community! |
|
| Home Page Two Columnists Q&A Submit an Article FAQs Contact Author Login |
How To Pray EffectivelyBabes Tan-Magkalas (192)    Babes Tan-Magkalas   http://www.stjosephsite.com Praying With PersistencePosted Monday, September 29, 2008 (1 year 54 days ago.) Viewed 24 times. You pray day and night with deep faith, but God does not seem to hear you. You remain jobless, your friend remains seriously ill and the man of your dreams is nowhere in sight. What should you do? You may think you should do nothing because if you continue praying, God may think you lack faith. Or you may think that God is teaching you the virtue of patience so you should just accept His silence with stoic resignation. You continue to pray longer and harder hoping that God will eventually answer your prayers. Jesus implied persistence in the parable of the man who kept knocking on his neighbor's door in the middle of the night asking for bread, until the neighbor got up and gave him the bread to make him go away (Luke 11: 5-8). His persistent action produced the desired response. In the parable about the widow, she kept returning to an unjust judge begging for justice. She wore away at him until he relented and granted justice (Luke 18:2-5). On the surface, it seems that you have to literally nag God and He will eventually answer and grant your heart's desire. Pray persistently and you will get what you want. But is this really what Jesus was saying? Will God give you what you asked for just to get rid of you so that He could attend to the countless others who demand His attention? Surely, you know God is not like that. Jesus personifies the character of God in the flesh. The Bible shows various accounts of Him being prepared to help the needy and showing compassion towards them. God always hears and answers prayers. Sometimes, the immediate response to a prayer is a resounding 'Yes.' At other times He responds negatively despite persistent praying and patience you exhibit as the wait continues. Have no doubt. God wants you to pray continually with faith. Why? The life of the apostle Paul is an example of faith. Paul was believed to have "a thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7). There is no description but readers believe the "thorn" was a chronic and debilitating health issue that kept him from doing his work. He prayed many times asking for God to take the 'thorn' away and waited in patience and faith for an answer. Yet, his prayer was not granted. Paul got something much better. He prayed persistently with faith and heard God's voice and learned His will in his life. God told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."(2 Corinthians: 9) Paul realized that his 'thorn in the flesh' prevented him from being boastful and proud. Paul had wonderful spiritual experiences and developed great preaching prowess and it was difficult not to brag. The 'thorn' kept him humble. Paul was aware of his weaknesses and knew that his accomplishments were gifts from God and not of his own making. You see, returning to God again and again in prayer keeps your communication lines with Him open. It gives God an opportunity to communicate with you and more importantly, gives you an opportunity to hear Him. It is usually after you have prayed and prayed that you run out of words and then, you stop talking and hear God in the silence. Persistent prayer provides God the opportunity to give you the solutions you're looking for. You may have your own idea of what the solution should be, which guides you as you continue to pray. However, what you think as the solution may not be God's. There are times when God bends your will and allows the broken spirit to shine. It is in prayer that you realize that letting go is the answer that lets God work miracles in your life. God will reshape your desires and show the right resolution. Pray persistently because you know the communications lines are open and God is listening. Actively speak with God to open the way for resolutions to come back to you. Do not lose heart. Keep praying and hold onto your faith. Hold on to the greatest opportunity by allowing God to work through you, in you and with you. Pray persistently for the right reasons. Experience God's presence, goodness, mercy and power as He touches your life! Babes Tan-Magkalas has 2 major passions in life : prayer and St. Joseph . She wrote a free ebook entitled "Prayer Tips (for Prayers That Get Results)" where she gives out valuable information on how to make prayers more powerful and effective. Grab your copy HERE . 
Permalink Comments (0) Ways To Sell Your House Fast Without Burying a St. Joseph StatuePosted Friday, September 26, 2008 (1 year 57 days ago.) Viewed 291 times. I became a permanent resident of Canada in September 2000 and since then I have moved twice. A townhouse was my first home and after a year, I moved to a raised ranch type house. After 5 years, I moved to a 4 level back split house which is only about a 5-minute drive from where I used to live. I never had difficulty selling the 2 houses I lived in and when both houses were up for sale, I did not bury a St. Joseph statue upside down as was customary. In fact, in both cases, I was able to sell my house after 2 weeks at a reasonable price. Being a St. Joseph devotee, I did pray and asked for St. Joseph's intercession. But instead of burying a St. Joseph statue, here's what I did. I simply placed a blessed St. Joseph statue by the window in my dining room since this is the window facing my front lawn and the street. I took a bit of the Holy Oil of St. Joseph and wiped the St. Joseph statue with it. Why? I don't know. I just felt like doing it. I then prayed a nine-day novena to St. Joseph. But before that, I prayed to God first and asked Him to answer my prayer according to His will. And the outcome: my first house sold after 10 days and my second house after 12 days! I don't think there is anything wrong with burying a St. Joseph statue upside down as some people do when they are selling their house. Personally, I look at it less as performing the suggested ritual to exact specifications and more as a leap of faith, believing in St. Joseph's powerful intercession. As Francis X. Weiser pointed out in his book, "The Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs", if these rituals are practiced in the right spirit, that is, based on the belief that saints in heaven pray and intercedes for us, and without what he calls "unreasonable superstition", our belief in the saints' patronage provides "great consolation in temporal and spiritual need". Surely, there are other factors involved in selling a house quickly and at a reasonable price such as the state of the economy, a private sale as against using a real estate agent, etc. But when it comes to praying for a house to be sold at the right time and at the right price, it's all about faith, not in the rituals one performs. While I believe performing a ritual reinforces faith, the bottom line is having the faith that God hears our prayers, that the saints are there to pray for us if we ask them and that the answer to our prayers is on its way, according to God's time and God's way.
Permalink Comments (0) What Is And How To Pray A NovenaPosted Friday, September 26, 2008 (1 year 57 days ago.) Viewed 236 times. How do you pray a novena? The word Novena comes from the Latin word novem which means nine. So a novena is generally prayed for nine consecutive days, most often in preparation for a great feast day, or for a special prayer request or need. However, a novena can also be spread over nine weeks, with each day of the Novena being said on any day depending on when the day of a particular saint or devotion falls. For example, Wednesday is the day traditionally associated with devotions to St. Joseph so a weekly novena in his honor is usually done on a Wednesday. There are also novenas which are done over nine months, and usually on the First Friday of each month. Some novenas are even hourly and a good example is the novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague which is prayed for just a day for nine consecutive hours. In addition are novenas which are not necessarily done in nine hours, days, weeks or months like the 30-day novena to St. Joseph. Praying novenas has its reference in the Holy Bible. In Acts 1:14, Jesus told His followers to pray together in the upper room and so the apostles along with the Blessed Mother and other disciples of Jesus prayed for nine consecutive days until the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit or Pentecost. Praying a novena is simple. Instructions are provided in novena prayer booklets and even online. Some are so simple that all you have to do is pray a short prayer, mention your prayer intention and pray it again the following day up to nine days. Some novenas are long and contain various prayers. Usually, there is an opening prayer and different prayers each day or week. Some also incorporate the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and Glory Be, Act of Contrition and other traditional Catholic prayers. So anyone can pray a novena if he/she desires to. Examples of well-known novenas are those to the Mother of Perpetual Help and the Sacred Heart. Many people say that these novenas are efficacious. But whatever novena you are praying, remember to pray it from the heart. God always see what's inside our hearts and answers prayers in His own way and in His own time. Grab your copy http://www.stjosephsite.com/SJS_Prayer%20Tips2.htm
Permalink Comments (0) Praying With Clasped HandsPosted Friday, September 26, 2008 (1 year 57 days ago.) Viewed 279 times. Praying with clasped or folded hands is quite common among Christians. Is there a meaning to this prayer gesture? Yes there is. Apparently, such a prayer posture is a symbol of obedience, sincerity, submission and repentance. Some raise their folded hands when they make a plea to God to answer their prayers. This gesture, however, is not only common to Christians but to Jews as well. In the book entitled "Book of Jewish Knowledge" by Nathan Ausubel, he said: "It has also been commonly assumed that folding the hands in prayer is exclusively a Christian custom. This is not the historical fact at all. As early as the post-Exilic period, when Jews prayed, they folded their hands, and they observed this custom for several centuries even after it had been adopted by Christians." Jesus and the Virgin Mary were both Jews so their images are often shown in this prayer gesture. Even angel art works oftentimes show angels with their hands drawn together. Not only do Jews and Christians practice it but also the Hindus and Buddhists. The latter draw their palms together to show respect, to venerate their deities and to greet one another. This posture is termed the "anjali mudra", anjali meaning offering and mudra, seal. Particularly in India, the word "Namaste" is said while doing this posture as a way of saying something like a sacred hello since the word "Namaste" is translated as "I bow to the divinity within you from the divinity within me." So what's the big deal about praying with clasped or folded hands or palms drawn together? Pope Benedict XVI said in his book "Spirit of the Liturgy has this to say: "The body has a place within the divine worship of the Word made flesh, and it is expressed liturgically in a certain discipline of the body, in gestures that have developed out of the liturgy's inner demands..." From this statement, the Pope is saying that the body certainly has a place in worship, in the Liturgy. The Pope mentioned the custom during feudal times of placing one's joined hands into the hands of his ruling lord as a sign of his fidelity and loyalty. So when we fold our hands in prayer, we are symbolically pledging to God our fidelity and loyalty and placing our hands in His. Does using the praying hands gesture help our ability to pray or meditate? Practitioners of yoga believe that doing this gesture brings the left and right hemispheres of one's brain together and quiet the mind. I find that I am able to focus more on God and concentrate better when I pray using the praying hands gesture. It's as if folding or clasping or drawing my hands together sends a signal to my mind to calm down. It is much the same when I kneel to pray. I see it as a time when I am in God's presence so I do it to show my reverence to my Creator. Babes Tan-Magkalas has 2 major passions in life : St. Joseph and prayer. She wrote a free ebook entitled "Prayer Tips (for Prayers That Get Results)" where she gives out valuable information on how to make prayers more powerful and effective. Grab your copy HERE.
Permalink Comments (1) |
Archives:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home |
Page Two |
FAQ's |
Contact |
Terms of Service |
Article Submission Guidelines |
Questions & Answers |
Privacy |
Mission / About
Copyright © 1999-2009 SearchWarp.com, All Rights Reserved - SearchWarp.com is an IcoLogic, Inc. Company