Prayer

Prayer, according to St. Thérèse of Lis­ieux, is “an upward leap of the heart, an untroubled glance toward heaven, a cry of gratitude and love.”

It is also central in the life of the Catholic Church, whether it comes in the form of a solitary person praying the rosary or a crowd of hundreds celebrating the Euch­arist.

Anyone who is raised Catholic learns the traditional prayers: the words of the Hail Mary, the Our Father, the Glory Be and the Apostle’s Creed. We learn special prayers for different saints, the Act of Contrition used during sacraments, and the many prayers recited during the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass itself.
And we are taught from childhood that taking time to speak to God and listen for his words is crucial.

But in this era of multi-tasking, when a person’s attention is often drawn to many things at once, finding room for an effective prayer life can be a huge challenge.

But it is necessary in order to live a full life as a Catholic, according to men and women in the Diocese of Charleston who have spent much of their daily lives devoted to prayer.

And it is a challenge that can be met in a variety of ways, they say, all of which can lead to a fuller relationship with God and to Christ through both individual prayer and the communal prayer of the Eucharist.

“The Eucharist, according to the church, is the source and summit of all our prayer,” said Father Kevin Walsh, OCSO, vocations director at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, where Trappist monks spend their lives devoted to constant contemplative prayer and work.

Read more: Prayer is speaking and listening

A man trying to sell a house buries a statue of St. Joseph upside down in his front yard. A woman who needs financial help constantly publishes notices in local newspapers’ classified ads as she prays novenas to St. Jude. Are these acts of devoted prayer, or superstition?

That’s a border Catholics have to be careful not to cross when taking part in some of the popular devotions that are part of our rich heritage of faith, said Father Stanley Smolenski, director of the shrine of Our Lady of South Carolina in Kingstree.

Father Smolenski said praying novenas and other special devotions to particular saints is an important part of a Catholic prayer life because it is a way of interacting with God through the love of the saint.

Read more: Prayer or persuasion?