Mental Prayer

How to spend fifteen minutes alone with God — methods, daily practice, and what to do when the prayer goes dark.

Mental prayer is the master practice of the spiritual life. He who does not meditate, says St. Alphonsus, will hardly save his soul — not because meditation earns salvation, but because the soul that does not pause to look at God will not see Him when He calls. Fifteen minutes a day, in a quiet place, with a chosen subject. The methods below are different doors into the same room.

Methods

How to begin. Pick one and stay with it long enough to learn it.

How to Pray A primer on the life of prayer — vocal, meditative, contemplative Mental Prayer The prayer that is friendship — and the many roads into it Lectio Divina Praying with Scripture — Guigo's four rungs The Ignatian Examen Fifteen minutes that sanctify the rest of the day

Daily Practice

The two anchors of an interior life: a daily meditation and a daily reading. Two methods are given — the Alphonsian and the Teresian. Pick one and stay with it.

Mental Prayer 15 min Mental Prayer — Teresian Method 15 min Spiritual Reading 15 min

Methods of the Schools

No two souls approach prayer alike, and the saints left more than one road: Ignatian, Franciscan, Carmelite, Salesian, and the French school of Bérulle. Try one for a few weeks before judging it.

Mental Prayer — Ignatian Method 30 min Mental Prayer — First Ignatian Method 15 min Mental Prayer — Second Ignatian Method 15 min Mental Prayer — Third Ignatian Method 10 min Mental Prayer — Application of the Senses 20 min Mental Prayer — Method of St. Peter of Alcántara 30 min Mental Prayer — Capuchin Method 20 min Mental Prayer — Method of the Carmelite Novitiate 30 min Mental Prayer — Method of St. Francis de Sales 20 min Mental Prayer — Redemptorist Method 20 min Mental Prayer — Method of St. Sulpice 30 min Mental Prayer — Olier's Manner of Meditating on the Virtues 15 min Mental Prayer — Method of St. John Eudes 30 min Mental Prayer — Method of Ven. Francis Libermann 20 min Mental Prayer — Opus Dei 30 min

In the Tradition

Two great year-long courses: Carmelite Divine Intimacy and Liguori's Daily Meditations.

Divine Intimacy 15 min

St Alphonsus' Daily Meditations 15 min

Scripture for Times of the Heart

When you do not know what to bring to prayer, bring what the day has brought you.

When Anxious 10 min Gratitude 10 min In Suffering 10 min Joy 10 min Forgiveness 10 min Courage 10 min Trust in God 10 min Love 10 min

When Prayer Is Hard

Dryness, distraction, the dark night, the long stretch when nothing seems to happen. Read these on the days you are tempted to stop.

When Prayer Goes Dark On dryness, distraction, and the long silence Feeling and Faith On consolation, desolation, and the movements beneath them The Book and the Silence When you have studied the faith but have not yet prayed it Measuring What Cannot Be Measured For the faithful soul tempted by the dashboard The Psalter in the Dark When your own words fail Pacing One thing at a time, kept for a year

Reading

Treatises on prayer from the great schools.

The Great Means of Prayer St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori The Ardent Prayer St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort Divine Intimacy Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.