3 Goals of Mental Prayer (Ken & Janelle)

Welcome to Advent Daily! 🌟 Today, on Wednesday of the First Week of Advent, we dive into an Advent reflection inspired by St. Alphonsus on the goals of mental prayer. 🙏✨

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Transcript

Welcome back to Advent daily today is Wednesday of the first week of Advent today we have a treat because St Alonso gets into mental prayer and the goal of mental prayer he talks about three goals or three ends often times we don't think about prayer as actually having a goal or something to accomplish but in St alonso's mind there are three ends to prayer that are better than other ends for example a recent survey asked Americans what they pray for the replies showed that they pray for families 51% of the time Friends 41% of the time spouses 31% of the time and they pray before job interviews 20% of the time exams 18% of the time and sporting events 12% of the time so the point of that is to show like this is what most people consider the end or the goals of prayer because you know 31% of the time people are praying for their spouses do you pray for me 31% of the time don't answer that St alonsus gives us three things that are supposed to be Primary in our mind when we go into mental prayer number one we must meditate in order to unite ourselves more completely to God it is not so much good thoughts in the intelligence as good acts of the will or holy desires that unite us to God so the goal of prayer first is not just to pray for friends or spouses es or whatever the the Practical needs are in our life the first goal of prayer is to unite ourselves more closely to God and he he's saying that this is more than simply an intellectual act but it has to be um with from the heart and we make acts in prayer many times when we pray don't we like in when we pray as a family for example we have acts of prayer what like acts of the acts of faith acts of contrition acts of Hope yeah yeah okay yeah actually more recently U we've been learning about the different virtues and one of them being the virtue of faith and how it is a gift and how we need to pray for that gift of faith like I think I remember sharing with our kids just like how we've we've seen so many people come to Faith and then for whatever reason it's like they've just Fallen away and that's why I think it's so crucial that we do pray these acts of faith so that we maintain that Faith so prayer is more than having simply a good thought but we have to direct our attention towards God and then make these acts can you remember the act of faith that we teach our kids in the morning Act of Faith oh my God I firmly believe that you are one God in three Divine persons Father Son and Holy Spirit I believe that your Divine son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them who are Eternal truth and wisdom who can neither deceive nor be deceived in this faith I intend to live and die amen so that's an act of faith that we pray every day almost every day with our kids so to unite ourselves to the will of God which is the first goal of prayer the second one we must meditate in order to obtain from God by prayer The Graces that are necessary in order to enable us to advance on the way of Salvation to avoid sin and to take the means that will lead us to Perfection so s alasas is reminding us that the the goal of prayer isn't just to have an easy life isn't to navigate life's problems isn't to get that next promotion the goal of prayer is to live for Jesus and so we in order to unite our Wills to him we need the grace in order to do that for example we we can't avoid sin without the grace of God so if the first goal of prayer is to unite our Wills to God and then the second one is that we ask God to give us the grace to do so and the means to do so so the strength to avoid sin and to live a virtuous life so that's the second goal of prayer according to St alasas the third we must apply ourselves to meditation not for the sake of spiritual consolations but chiefly in order to learn what is the will of God concerning us I wonder how often we enter into prayer wondering about the will of God for our life and we reverse it and we think about what we want to get out of life and how much of our time and attention in prayer is focused on that instead of the ultimate question God what is your will for my life St alons is reminding us this is the third end of prayer that we would come to know the will of God so much of life people spend on chasing dreams or goals aspirations but I wonder how often it's considered is this what God wants of me and this is what we discover in prayer we can't discover God's will in other words unless we pray we won't Discover it and this is why I think we know that the Blessed Virgin Mary's life was a continuous life of prayer CU she she embraced God's will at the enunciation so beautifully let it be done to me according to Thy word I'm the handmade of the Lord do you think this was the first time she prayed this way her whole life leading up to this is an offering over to the will of God she's the perfect example of these the three things that she unites herself to God she obtains the grace always to live in a pure way free from sin that singular Grace given to her from God that's a special Grace and then always seeking his will in all things and so it was natural for her to say yes to the angel because she had said that her whole life prior and so for us let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary's intercession so that we could live this out so maybe you can consider looking at your prayer are you getting distracted by the many you know responsibilities the demands of your life in your prayer offering all these intentions continuously or have you considered these three things in your personal prayer of uniting yourself to God asking for the grace to live his will and number three to know his will and then those extra things life you know they might be thinking you might be thinking Ken what about life changing the diapers yes we got those emptying the dishwasher paying the taxes going to work it's not that those things aren't important but then what we're doing is we're asking God to live his will in those duties that's the more important thing it's living that Duty with love for Jesus uniting our will to Jesus in that Duty so many times we look at our circumstances and we're praying God make my circumstance easier instead of M praying God make my circumstance easier God show me how to live your will in this circumstance that's what God wants of us I think we're much more anxious to change our circumstances and change our hearts but God is much more anxious to change our hearts and our circumstances usually do want to end us with a prayer sure a my infant King how could I have so often rebelled against thee and lived so long thy enemy deprived of thy Grace when to oblige me to love thee thou Hast put off thy Divine majesty and Hast humbled thyself even to appearing first as a babe in a cave then as a servant in a shop and as a criminal on a cross oh happy me if now that I have been freed as I hope from the slavery of Satan I allow myself forever to be governed by thee and by thy love oh Jesus my king who art so amiable and so loving to our souls take possession I pray thee of mine I give it entirely to thee accept it that it may serve thee forever but serve thee only for love