Ep. 3 - Prayer

In this episode of Blazing Hearts, we talk about prayer, and its importance to our relationship with God, as well as different forms of prayer that are easy to put into action!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Welcome to Blazing Hearts Podcast, where we talk about living out your faith in high school, exploring practicals, and what it's like to live with the heart on fire for God. I'm Michael.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

And I'm Emily, and today we're going to be talking about one of the most important things with relationship with our Lord, which is prayer.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Yeah, prayer is one of those things, it's one of those words that's tossed around a lot. And it can be difficult to necessarily know what that means past your routine, your memorized prayers, which are obviously very important. Like your Our Fathers, El Mary's Glory Beasts, all those, those are kind of like a set collection of prayers, and can be one of those first things that our mind jumps to when we say the word prayer. But prayer is one of those things that's so much more deeper and more whole, more fulfilling than just saying these words that we've memorized since we were five.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah. Prayer can be used in a lot of different ways, but it's like a pathway, I guess, to the Lord, like a direct contact, per se. And it doesn't have to be like the set, like you have to say this and this and this, but like you can just like tell the Lord how you're feeling and like just speak from your heart because He is your father and He cares for you. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yeah, and I think the way you entered this with it's one of the most important things in terms of relationship to God is kind of the key part of this because what prayer is, it's kind of building up this relationship with God. Because if you can't like a relationship isn't one-sided or like sporadic, like sure, I can be friends with someone that I talk to once a year, which I'm not saying any of you listening only pray once a year, but you need to have a continuous style of prayer if you want to grow in a closer relationship to God. And that can be uh established in a lot of ways, like you said. So I think for this episode, we're gonna kind of establish these different forms and ways of prayer because there's so much in our Catholic faith. Like there's so much diversity in prayer past these like routine memorized prayers that can sometimes get boring or like we can zone out during them.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Right. Yeah, and one of the things that I like to do a lot is I like to journal when I pray. So I'll literally just open my journal, sit down, and I write dear lord at the top of my paper, and I just start like writing a letter. And sometimes it's like I don't even know. I'm like this kid in math class really made me mad because he didn't do this assignment, or like I don't know, like it's like that where it's like, yeah, like I want to go cry in a corner and do nothing, or just like whatever it is, like literally just telling him about my day and like about my heart and what I'm feeling. It's just like it's so helpful because one, I'm not like hurting anyone by saying anything to anyone else because I don't know, someone might be offended or I mean who knows, right? But I'm also like spending that time with the Lord and like showing him my heart, and then like through that, he can speak to me and like help me grow through that and those experiences, especially in like a more personalized way when it comes to journaling, because yeah, what you're really doing is you're not kind of having this not necessarily like in not powerful, but like this more generic form of prayer, and you're kind of taking that into a personalized, hey, this is what's going on in my life, right, and bringing it to like this, bringing it to God and being like, This is what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah, what do you want to say to me through this?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

It's more of like I'm like talking to a friend, like having a conversation, just like sit down type thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Yeah, exactly. And that's kind of one of the key parts of a good prayer is that it's personal.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

And this doesn't necessarily mean that like you need to tell God everything that's going on through journaling. Right. But it's just that you are making this time of prayer personal and intentional, right, as opposed to being able to zone out while you're praying.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yeah. And something I think that's also helpful with journaling is like I can write down the responses that I get from the Lord, which a lot of times someone will tell me something really profound and I forget it like two days later, and I'm like, oh, like that was really good, but I don't remember what that was. So when I write it down, I can go look at it. Or like I was talking to one of my friends who's in seminary like last week, and he was like, Yeah, like sometimes I don't hear anything in prayer for like three days, and I'm like, Oh God, where'd you go? But then he's like, But actually, I have so much in like my prayer journals and like all these things that I can look back on to be like, no, he is there, and like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah. And one of the things that I was thinking of through that is like having these personal moments of having God speak to you. Like that concept can be really scary sometimes.

unknown 5:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

And it can be, you know, sometimes difficult to be like, I'm sorry, you're trying to tell me like what how am I supposed to dig through all this and figure out what is God actually saying to me?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

And something that I heard recently was like you shouldn't have to necessarily dig through hidden meaning to find what God has in store for you is trying to say to you.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

But instead, it kind of should be pretty evident what uh he's saying to you, and maybe that will take some interpretation, right? But you shouldn't have to like dig through meanings and hidden messages and break a code just to figure out what God is trying to say to you. And I think one of the big points that is uh or that can help with hearing God's voice. Sorry, I lost my train of thought there. Is this form of prayer called Lexiodimina, divine reading? It's where you kind of take this scripture passage and you read through it a handful of times, and you just reflect on what is sticking out to you, what verse or word or part of the story is like jumping off the page at you in a way, and kind of just meditating and reflecting on that and bringing it to the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

And I think what's so cool about this is you can reflect on a passage by yourself or with a group of ten people, and you know, this word that has is well over 2,000 years old, well, not well over, but some of it is, is God's word, and it still speaks to everyone, and it can speak to people differently. Yes. Because I've been in groups where Lexio Divina is our form of prayer, and you'll get different phrases that may have jumped off the page from each individual.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Yeah. And I think it's cool how that happens because every time I've done Lexio with a group of people, it's like this thing spoke to me, but it like meant this in my life in this situation that I've been going through that, like who like no one else knows about it, but it's like God knows, and he sees it, and he sees you. And so, like that phrase jumped out at my friend or like at me because it was like this is what he was trying to say. Yeah, but I also want to say that like sometimes, like how you're saying, like, the Lord is not gonna speak in like really like weird ways, or like it's not gonna be like hard to find the message that he's trying to tell you, but sometimes the Lord speaks in like very odd ways. Like my friend was spreading over me one time, and we were like, let me just paint the picture for you. We're sitting in a little creek in the river, okay? And it's like really shallow, there's like a bed of rocks, and we're like on like this tree that fell down, and we're just like sitting on this tree, and she was like praying for me, and she's like, I just get this image of like you looking at a horse, and that's it. And I was like, Okay, like, sure. And she's like, Well, I don't really know what it means, but sometimes God gives me images to tell to my friends, and then they make sense like a year later, but yeah, I don't know what that means, and it's like okay, great, I don't know what that means either.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

But like Emily is also not a horse girl, to my knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

In my heart, I am following not outwardly, like like yeah, I was just like, okay, like sure. Like my favorite movie is Secretariat, but it's not like I'm like riding horses every weekend that goes like I don't know. So yeah, I still don't know what that means, but like if you get something like that, I don't know, write it down or something because yeah, and I mean and what you're saying, Lord speaks in odd ways, or even like unexpected ways.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Like, yeah, I remember one of my favorite moments moments of prayer was adoration. It was an outdoor adoration by a lake. Yeah, so during the summer, it's like sunset's awesome, and I'm kind of like in the presence of God, which is an amazing form of prayer already, but just like experiencing his creation, and I remember kind of like glancing behind me into the bushes and like oh my gosh, there were fireflies because fireflies are like one of my favorite animals, and just being able to like see that and be like, Oh, it kind of like inspired me a little bit to be like this light and just be like this inspiration, and it's like, well, those are just fireflies. It's like, yeah, but those fireflies mean something to me, and God can work through those ways in kind of in like unexpectedly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

And like he like spoke to us in those ways because he knows like the littlest desires of our heart, and like people might not know those things about us, and obviously you do now because we've told you, but like before you wouldn't have known that, but like the Lord knows that, and he knows your heart, and like he wants you to just like tell him like everything in your heart, and that's really scary sometimes because you're like, I don't really want to go to that place in my heart with you, or like don't want to go like bring that up again, but like like he wants to know.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yeah, and it's interesting, it's like both like a little scary at the fact that like the Lord knows your heart, but also it can be like comforting. It's like what you're going to bring to him in prayer, you're not gonna, you know, like turn him away, right? Like he's not gonna shut you down because you said something, right? Or like there's this difficult situation, or like sitting in your life that you're like, Lord, I'm bringing this to you in prayer, and he's not gonna be like, Nope.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Get out of here, turn back around.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

And I think it that's so it can be really comforting because it's like God isn't embarrassed by us, He's loving us, and He wants to be there for us, and I think just having that is so special. I agree and makes can make prayer a little bit easier and less scary in like the God knows your heart and he wants to hear it than the God knows your heart. Right. I think one of the other interesting forms of prayer that the Catholic Church has is the rosary. Because I think uh what when we think of like meditation prayer, yeah. What the which the church already has a lot of, but it's like uh meditation with like mantras and stuff, we our mind instantly jumps to like your Eastern religions, Hinduism, Buddhism. But what the rosary is it's this like personal meditation using mantras of prayer that we have memorized, yeah, and reflecting on the life of Mary and of Jesus. Yeah, and it's just this special way to grow closer to God and to Mary, our mother. And I think it's like just this unexpected meditation can be nice to slow down every once in a while and have to, you know, calm your mind from the thousands of thoughts to be able to just focus on and reflect on the life of Mary and of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Yeah, and I think something that's really good about the rosary is it has like the mysteries, which are the things you can meditate on. It's like joyful, sorrowful, luminous, glorious. Yeah. And like the sorrowful mysteries are like you can meditate on them like when you're sad, or I don't know, whenever you want, really, because you can choose which one you want to meditate on. But I think they're just like it's a really good way to enter into like the life of Jesus and the life of Mary because like I guess like as a 16-year-old girl, like, yeah, I want to be a mom, but I don't really think about like the emotions and the like feelings that Mary must have felt when she was like watching her son be killed and crucified to the cross, like that's crazy, but like you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, and I think one of those other good ways of entering into prayer, it's similar to Lexio and sort of similar to like the meditation aspect of the rosary from St. Ignatius of Loyola, it's imaginative prayer, and it's kind of reading the scripture and placing yourself into the story somewhere. Yeah, you can kind of decide where in the story you want to be, and it's just kind of imagining what this experience was like, and this can be really interesting to do in the gospels and you know conveniently helpful because of shows like The Chosen to put faces to the names, but it's just this moment where you can just experience what this moment was actually like because we hear these stories sometimes so often that we just be like, Oh yeah, that ha that's what happened. Okay, there's nothing that special about it, right? And going into this form of prayer can kind of make you think more about the the like events that happened in the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Yeah. Something else that I guess is like kind of unrelated to that, but another form of prayer that I really like is like music and like specifically worship music, or honestly any music. Music is like something that really hits my heart really hard. My friends can attest when there's a song in adoration that really hits me, I'll probably be sobbing on the floor. So, you know, but yeah, I think it's really beautiful that like the Lord can take like these songs, like I don't know, like rest on us. Like, I thank God they're such like well-known general songs, and like the message about them is not bad whatsoever, it's like good, but it also like can be so personal, which I think is something like I don't know, it just blows my mind. It's like so cool that the Lord can take one song like Lexio Divina, like one Bible passage and speak to so many people in a different way. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah, and I mean, I guess so. I'm a little bit of a country fan. Over the summer, Hardy released a new album called Country Country. And as I'm like listening to it, I some of the songs have like this theme of like inevitable death, like, okay, we're all gonna die, but what does that mean for our lives? And I am like, huh, wait, this sounds familiar to like Memento Mori. And like listening to this, these songs, which can be explicit at times, but it's like, oh, these actually have some good themes. So even like this secular music where it's like, you know, God can kind of bring out what he wants to say to you in anything, and it's like I'm listening to this, I'm like, oh, this is like I I need to take this to prayer. This is something that's like, oh, this spoke to me. And I think that was it was just a funny experience, yeah. Just recognizing these songs, and it's like, yeah, maybe these are true, and I do need to like be like, okay, I'm going to die at some point. What does that mean for my life?

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Right, yeah. But yeah, I don't know. Like the Lord literally speaks through anything. I don't know. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah. I think one of the final forms of prayer that we'll talk about is one that Emily and I both love. It's called the Liturgy of the Hours. Yeah. And although it goes back to more of the like standardized prayers of the church, so brief backstory, it's these it's a collection of psalms, readings, and gospel passages that are prayed by all the religious around the world.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Like deacons, monks, priests, nuns.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Plus lay people, if they would like to play, if they would like to pray, but they're not obligated. The religious are, however. And it's just this really cool moment for me of being able to both pray with myself, and because there's these times of silent reflection kind of built in, yeah. But also pray with the universality of our church, yeah. With knowing that like these are the same prayers that maybe me and the people around me are praying, yeah, as well as you know the people in Rome. Like the Pope is probably praying the exact same prayers as I am earlier in the day. And it's just this moment of just like, oh, the church is a community.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

And I think having these psalms and prayers are really helpful to be like they're more calming because they're kind of standardized, yeah. But it's still time where the Lord can speak to you, yeah, and you know, you can build community.

unknown 18:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Yeah. At my church we have night prayer, which is our night of the week, besides our like main youth group night. That's like our community, and we all take 15-20 minutes like out of our two hours that we spend together, and we like pray night prayer through the liturgy of the hours, and it's just like it's so beautiful when I'm sitting up there and I like am leading prayer, and I just like look out and see all these faces that I know and I love, and I'm just like, wow, like I don't know, like God's just really good because we're all praying together and we're all like voluntarily come here to pray and like be with each other, and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Yeah, and I have a handful of similar stories, like so every youth group we've ended with a Sunday Compline, which is night prayer, and it's one of those things where it's like it's kind of rooting because you know no matter how crazy or like hectic youth group was, we're always gonna end in like this calm prayer that it it's like it's gotten to the point where I can kind of pray it without the sheet, but like it's still like calming. And then my other story is being able to pray this in a community. I did like a program on Notre Dame's campus over this past summer, and while I was there, I was like, well, let's start a group and pray night prayer with like I don't know, first night was like four people, but by the end of it, we got like 40-something teenagers praying just night prayer in the grotto at Notre Dame, which is a beautiful setting. Yeah, but it was just this moment of like community, and we're all praying these same prayers, as well as people and religious all around the world, yeah, and just this way where you can enter into the prayer of the church while still having that personalized reflection, what is God saying to me in it and through it.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Yeah. I think that's gonna do it for this episode on prayer.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah, but it's not a lot, but I think I mean some of the most important parts are making prayer intentional and personal, personal, intentional, and just being open to God. There's no right way to pray, right? But it's you know, your prayer is your prayer.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

It's how you're gonna grow in a relationship with God.

unknown 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

So having that be just personal, intentional, and being open, yeah, I think is some of the most important parts of prayer.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

And also just like be honest with the Lord, because like Michael said earlier, he's not like judging you or being like, no, like that's you sinned too much, or that thing you did, it's it's a no-no. Like, obviously, sin is that good and don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Well, thank you for the great advice I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Like, just don't do it, I said no. Obviously, we're all gonna sin because we're not perfect, but like nothing that you do or say or like in your past is ever gonna stop you from the Lord loving you. And even him like loving you through that, and like like I don't know, he just loves you more. Your sin, or more than the thing you did last week that you haven't told anyone about, or like literally anything. So he's not gonna be scared of you or your sin or whatever you did.

unknown 22:11

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

That's gonna be it for this episode of Blazing Hearts. Thank you for listening. Follow us at the link in the description and subscribe wherever you guys get your pods. Have a blessed day.