Last Aug. 9, 2008, the St. Paul University Surigao had the first Graduate School Recollection (taking up my masters degree) held at the SPUS High School site. The recollection day was a blessing for me that weekend. I was supposed to conduct an orientation for our new employees at work that day but thanks to God, it was rescheduled.

Days before the recollection I was feeling all so tired, crying my heart out…so many schedules ahead of me, so many surprised responsibilities, both work and community... I was about to explode.I wanted to fly out of Surigao….I really needed a break. Indeed, I was given a break, though I wasn’t able to fly out of Surigao but God allowed me to have time with Him that Saturday. I was able to listen to talks given by the Sisters, spent Holy Hour, had a good confession and attended Mass. A great vacation indeed!

Here’s a share of my one day vacation with God… “Building One’s Prayer Life”

On Prayer

Our very goal why we pray is that we want to get closer to God, to pray unceasingly, every moment of our lives.

Prayer is not a matter of intelligence.

Do experience feelings of emptiness, frustrations or loss of direction in life?

Do you hunger for a greater sense of the Lord’s presence in your life?

Do you desire to know God in a deeper way?

-How much do we love God?

-Is God first in our priorities?

-Will you compromise? “If one Sunday, you were on your way to Church…then suddenly a man comes up to you and tells you “I will give you here 1 million pesos, just don’t go to mass today.”

Do you want to serve Him better and more completely but don’t feel you have time, energy, and opportunity?

Do you need more time with Him in prayer?

Preparation for a degree (taking up masters, doctorate, etc.) is plain vain empty without God in it. We must always consult God’s will for us.

God wants you to long for His presence. Let us not settle for what’s temporary.

He wants you to find fulfillment in Him and nothing else. What for you is the source of fulfillment in life?

-We must distinguish want and need.

-So many wants and “created needs” will never satisfy us anything.

He wants us to walk closely with Him.

He wants you to increase in faith and acknowledge His word.

He wants you to put all your hopes and dreams in His hands and look to Him all your needs.

When you do, He will open the storehouse of blessings upon your life.

Pray- “pecori” Latin

“to entreat or ask”

it simply means “please”

The true essence of prayer is focusing on God with a pure and repentant heart. We need to touch God with our hearts by becoming so preoccupied with Him and nothing else.

Prayer is an art which only the Holy Spirit can teach us. Pray for prayer. Pray until you can really pray. Prayer is a gift. “A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.”

Prayer may not change things for you, but it sure changes your perspective towards things.

Conversion is a matter of grace.

You cannot change any one. Not necessarily anything will change, instead you will be graced to understand and you will be given a deeper understanding that will allow you to change your perspective.

Reflect on the event, what have you done to have contributed to that event, why it happened in the first place?

It is very destructive or harmful when you know not how to forgive.

Why do we pray?

Prayer is a holy occupation.

The job of every Christian is to pray:

• duty and privilege
• right and responsibility
• leads us to onesness with God
• not a routine exercise
• pray always: in good time and in bad times
• pray about anything and everything

What are our motives in praying?

• to get blessings and favors
• pass on my problems to God
• last resort in times of trouble
• to get God do things my way or to get me do things His way

- God answers: NO, YES or WAIT

- NO: When it will not be good for our salvation. Let’s not dictate God because there’s so much wisdom in God’s decisions.

• Conversion and transformation
• Love of God (the noblest prayer concern)- praying without conditions
• Build intimacy with God

Prayer is a relationship between God and you. We cannot build relationship with someone we do not like.

Prayer is an act of faith.

Talking to God and listening to Him when He speaks.

HOW TO PRAY

• No hard and fast rules of prayer
• No technical procedure to follow
• Focus on your gaze and attention on God loving you
• Handle distractions properly
• Feel the air as if it is the touch of God and breathe the air of God.
• Put yourself in the Holy presence of God

2 MISTAKES WE OFTEN MAKE

* Not pray at all for whatever reasons

* To merely repeat the words if a prayer without thought or feeling, so it’s essentially the same mistake of not praying at all.

Pray following the leading of the Holy Spirit from your innermost heart. The Holy Spirit will intercede on our behalf. (Romans 8:26-27)

We will feel spontaneous lightness, fire within (strong desire)

ATTITUDES AND DISPOSITION IN PRAYER

- openness

- reverence

- patience

- humility

- surrender

Have faith and trust that you’ll eventually be able to discern that whisper from God.

It is not religion that will determine if we go to heaven…..it is our faith.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when saying the word "miracle"? Is it the blind boy who wakes up one morning, suddenly able to see for the first time in his life? Or how about the person who's been deaf since birth who is now hearing a bird chirp for the first time? Many people think miracles are like these type of farfetched events that happen only to others. They couldn't be more wrong about that.

All it takes is the willingness to believe you deserve miracles by asking for them. And I don't necessarily mean "those kind of miracles." I'm talking about simple every day things like getting that job or house you want, the ideal partner or whatever it is you desire.

As the world continues to evolve through a spiritual transformation, more so-called coincidences are taking place as the number of people who raise their level of consciousness increase. This is because through self exploration, there is a growing recognition that in order to lay claim to what we want, a change of consciousness has to take place from within ourselves. This leads those on the self-awareness path to open themselves to the possibility of asking and then receiving miracles. All that needs is a shift in their own perception of the universe in which we operate in.

Like a computer that runs on a set of procedures that must be followed in order to operate the machine, the universe has its own set of laws that must be followed in order to recognize, receive and accept miracles. Just Believe in Prayers and everything will follow. Prayer can move Mountains. if you will pray just follow the pattern ABC . A - ask B - Believe and C - Claim. and it will give it to you in his time.. it works!

I pray. I pray to become God's perfect instrument. I pray to God to free me from the little 'i' and to make me the big 'I', the universal 'I'. The little 'i' tells me what it can do for me. It tells me that it can destroy the world or bring the whole world to my feet. The universal 'I' tells me that I am of God and for God. It tells me that I am all love for God the Creator and for God the Creation.

I pray. I pray to God to act through me and for me. When I act for myself, I create constant problems, untold problems. But when God acts in and through me, it is all divine achievement, fulfilling achievement.

I pray to God to choose for me. When I choose, I choose desire unconsciously or consciously. Then there comes a time when I consciously treasure desire, imperfection, limitation and bondage. I consciously want to remain in the finite and wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. But when God chooses for me, He chooses aspiration, the inner cry. This inner mounting flame takes me high, higher, highest and then brings me down to offer my realisation fruit to aspiring humanity. When God chooses for me, He chooses Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Infinity, Eternity and Immortality-these are only vague terms for those who do not aspire. But for those who aspire, these are living realities in the very heart of the seeker's aspiration.

I pray to God to make me one with suffering humanity. I pray to God to make me one with aspiring humanity. I pray to God to make me one with illumined humanity.

When I pray to God to make me one with suffering humanity, it is because the physical in me is at last seeing the truth that there is no end to suffering in the unenlightened physical consciousness. When I expand my physical consciousness, I share and thus lighten the burden of the suffering earth.

But now suffering humanity does not want to remain forever in its deplorable condition, so it begins to aspire. When it aspires, I have a free access to its aspiration, for when I expand my psychic consciousness, I become one with aspiring humanity. Then, when suffering has been ended by aspiration, when humanity is flying with the wings of aspiration, it enters into the world of illumined humanity. It is here, when we become part and parcel of illumined humanity, that we discover the meaning of life.

When I pray, I converse with God. I tell God that I need Him. God tells me, "My son, you need Me now. But I always needed you, I need you now, and I shall always need you." Then God asks, "Son, why do you need Me?" I reply, "Father, I need You because with You I am safe, with You I am happy; without You I am unsafe, without You I am unhappy." God says, "Son, I needed you to become My Dream Boat. I need you to become My ever flowing Life River. I shall need you to become the Golden Shore of My ever-transcending Beyond."

When I pray loudly, my prayer is not soulful, and I cannot hear the faint Voice of God. But when I pray in silence, when I pray soulfully, I hear God's powerful Voice clearly and most significantly. When I pray to God out of fear, my fearful prayer does not reach God's door. But when I pray to God with love, my prayer reaches God's very Heart. And my loving prayer places me at the very Feet of God, my eternal Haven.

My prayer is a magnet and God's Concern is another magnet. When I pray, my magnet prayer reaches the Highest and pulls God down into the very breath of my earthly consciousness. At that time, God offers me what He eternally is: Immortality's Smile. And when God's Concern-magnet pulls me up, I give Him what I have always been: inner cry, the inner cry of millennia.

When I reach the Highest on the strength of my prayer, God makes me His Dream-fulfilling Reality. When God comes down and feeds my heart on the strength of His unconditional Compassion, He makes me His Dream fulfilled Reality. It is our reciprocal self giving that makes us inseparable one. Through my prayer, I offer to God all that I have and all that I am: Ignorance. And through His Compassion, God offers to me what He has and what He is: Peace, Light and Divinity's ever flowing Bliss.

In the Western world, they use the vehicle of prayer to reach the Highest. In the Eastern world, especially in India, they use the vehicle of meditation. Both are of paramount importance; both are of equal value. Prayer and meditation will give us the same result provided they are both soulful. But we have to know what actually happens when we pray, and what actually happens when we meditate, even though the result is the same. When we pray, we feel that God is the listener, and we are the talker. We cry from within, and God listens to our cry and consoles us. Our prayer is our conversation with God. But when we meditate, we empty our minds and purify our hearts and become receptivity itself. At that time, God the Guest, the eternal Guest, enters into us and sits on the throne of our hearts. When this happens, God talks and we listen. In this way the conversation is always perfect. In prayer, we talk and God listens; and in meditation, God talks and we listen. Let us pray; God is bound to listen to our prayers, our inner cry. Let us meditate; we are bound to listen to God's Voice, His inner Voice.

Prayer tells us that we are for God, for Him alone. Meditation tells us that we are of God, of Him alone. It was through the power of meditation, the soul's meditation, that the soul came down into the physical world. And now the soul will go back to its own transcendental Height by offering its prayer. The soul becomes one with earthbound prayer, and this earth bound prayer eventually grows into Heaven free realization.

Let us pray; God is listening to us. Let us meditate; we shall hear God's Voice. When we pray, God becomes our Beloved Supreme and we His eternal Lover. When we meditate, we become God's Beloved and He our Divine Lover Supreme.