Fifteen Ways to Pump up Your Prayer Life



By Jean M. Heimann

“Prayer is nothing else than an intimate friendship, a frequent heart-to-heart conversation with Him, Who we know loves us.” ~ St. Teresa of Avila

 Are you simply going through the motions when you pray or are you on fire for your faith?

Sometimes, as Catholics, we get into the rut of performing our spiritual practices out of habit without really thinking about what we’re doing.  We get into a certain routine that has become dull and we don’t know how to put the life back into it. Or we may fear that if we discontinue or alter our routine, God will punish us by distancing himself from us or by allowing bad things to happen in our lives. How can we get back on track and pump up our prayer life?

We need to be able to pray with conviction. Our primary reason for prayer should be because we love God, who is our Creator and our Savior.  As such, He deserves our praise and we, in turn, desperately need his grace.  When we pray with conviction, we pay attention to the meaning of the words we are saying, we search the Scriptures for wisdom and direction, we lift our hearts up to God in thanksgiving and adoration, and we try to adapt our lives according to the discoveries we make through prayer – to unite our will with that of God’s will.

St. Teresa of Avila tells us: “The most potent and acceptable prayer is the prayer that leaves the best effects. I don’t mean it must immediately fill the soul with desire . . . The best effects [are] those that are followed up by actions—–when the soul not only desires the honor of God, but really strives for it. “

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~ Copyright November 2014 Jean M. Heimann
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