Time for God: A Guide to Mental Prayer

Mental prayer is the most important type of prayer and is a hidden jewel of graces for those who want to share in the fullness of faith in God and the Catholic Church. I had extreme difficulty in figuring out what mental prayer actually was and how to start praying it until a priest at confession suggested "Time for God" to my wife. We both learned about mental prayer thanks to Father Phillippe and we have tried to persevere in it ever since. This is a short, 100 page book that is a must for EVERY CHRISTIAN, if you really want to pray effectively to God and allow yourself to come closer to God like never before. In fact order two copies, because you will always want to keep an extra copy to pass on to friends, as you will want to share the gift of mental prayer with your family and friends.

Easy to read, but don't let that fool you. The book is a deeply inspirational guide to drawing closer to Christ.

I absolutely LOVED this book.... it was recomended to me by a priest from my local parish. I had been having trouble "finding time" for God. Through reading this book, I came to deeply realize the importance of daily prayer. The book is fairly short and very easy to read. The book gives amazing guidlines to beginning a serious prayerful relationship with God and I would recomend it for anyone who is serious about deepening their relationship their saviour.

It is because I want to excel in my prayer life that I got this book to read. However, the author has a surprise for me. It is not about a "method" of prayer or your techniques of meditation, Ibrahim. The first fundamental truth we must understand, and without which we cannot make progress, is that the life of prayer, or so-called contemplative , is not the result of a technique; it is a gift we receive.(p. 11). On p. 13 the author goes on to show that it is dangerous to confuse Christian prayers with New Age techniques. Not all roads lead to Rome here! New Age spirituality rejects the mystery of Incarnation: God has in Christ revealed Himself. At the bottom of New Age is the promise of illusory self-fulfillment that denies the need for grace. New Age fosters egoism while Christianity teaches us to die to the self and be self-less in taking up the Christ of Christ and following after Him as a beloved disciple of His. What matters in New Age spirituality is self-fulfillment where the "other" does not come to the equation as far as communion with the Divine, Our Lord, is concerned. While the goal of New Age is to attain the absolute "I" or union with the great "All,", the ultimate end of Christian prayer is to transform the self in me into God, who stands before me as His supplicant, knocking the door of my heart daily, in fact every moment. In Christianity, this is meant to achieve union that would distinguish me as an involved being with the Lord, and the result is mutual self-giving in love. On P. 19 Fr. Philippe touches on an important point. What if I don't experience moments in prayer that are not beautiful or satisfying? No profound thoughts or sentiments to make me feel like I am "in the spirit" like some who use a spiritual thermometer to test their spiritual temperature. Fr Philippe says, I is not as important to experience moments of prayer that are beautiful and satisfying, rich in profound thoughts or sentiments, as it is to be faithful and persevering in prayer. In other words, we must not focus so much on the "quality" but on our fidelity to prayer. Quality will be the fruit of fidelity. Times of arid, impoverished, distracted, or relatively brief prayer, if practiced faithfully every day, are more meritorious and bear more fruit than long,ardent prayers offered inconsistently when we feel the circumstances conducive. After seriously committing ourselves to the life of prayer, the first battle we must win is fidelity at all costs, according to the rhythm we have established for ourselves. This is not an easy victory. The devil knows the dangers for us and so tries to dissuade us the best he can. He knows that a person who is faithful to prayer can easily slip through fingers or, at least, will slip through one day. For this reason, the devil will everything and anything to hinder us from fidelity prayer. As I got out my prayer journal and started to make notes from the book I checked out of the library, inter-library loa

This is the second book by Father Jacques Philippe that I have read. It is just as good as the first and I must state that it is a must read for growth in the spiritual life. Father Philippe writes a wonderful little book about the life of prayer and how to pray, and he goes through a number of the Saints of the church and their writings on prayer. He gives some amazing advice. First and foremost, he states that all forms and types of prayers in the Christian life should not become so ritualistic that they lose their spiritual benefits. He tells us that most spiritual practices in our lives are for a season, and what is fruitful and amazing now, may need to be changed in the future. Philippe tells us that we are responsible for 5 attitudes in our approach to prayer. We must have faith, fidelity, purity of intention, humility and perseverance. If we are persistent in pursuing these 5 things, we will grow in the spiritual life. Fr. Jacques also gives us 4 principles to remember in our practice of prayer: the primacy of God's action, the primacy of God's love, the humanity of Jesus, and God's indwelling in our heart. Fr. Philippe is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors for spiritual reading. He touches upon that practice in this book as a tool for prayer. Spiritual reading is different from other forms of reading; rather than reading for the purpose of reviewing, or academic reading, spiritual reading is slowly digesting a book, stopping to pray when inspired, or stopping to meditate - reading something again and again if it really catches your attention. Its main purpose is to grow deeper. Some samples of the gems in this book are: "Prayer, no matter how brief, is very pleasing to God. Far from causing us to lose courage in perilous situations, prayer strengthens us." P.125 "The truth is everyone who sets off on the spiritual journey seeks God, but also in part, herself or himself." P.22 "It follows that all we have to do in prayer is to seek love and to strengthen it. This is the only criterion for judging whether we are doing badly or well in prayer." P.61 "There is no doubt that if we give God our time, we will be able to find time for others, too. By paying attention to God, we learn to pay attention to others." P.30 "Therefore, we do not pray because of the pleasure or benefits drawn from it - even if these are immense - but primarily because we want to please God, who asks us to pray. We pray not for our own delight, but for God's." P.21 "Moreover, the Mass in itself is more important than personal prayer. This may be true, but without a prayer life, the sacraments would have a limited effect." P.27 "Nevertheless, in this life, those who pray become increasingly capable of loving and spontaneously doing good, which initially required great effort. Thanks to the action of the holy spirit, it becomes easier and more natural to practice virtue." P.27 Those are just a few of the passages I underlined in this book. I randoml