My "Prayer" Talk Outline

And I'm back!!! As you know if you read my last post I have been away on a retreat this week-end. I don't think that it could have come at a better time in my life... I am always so used to hearing on every retreat I go to that I am there because God wants me there for a special reason. Maybe it's because it will help bring others closer to Him, or maybe it is because there is a message that I would only receive by going there, but whatever the reason He brings the ones He wants to each retreat. I know that it very true, but I especially felt that after this week-end... I don't know if I will even be able to write down what I experienced on this particular retreat in one posting so maybe I shall break it down into days.... but before I really go into that I thought that I would post my outline for my retreat on this post. The subject was all about prayer...
Funny little story about this, because as I have put the original outline of what I planned to say I realized that really this is only part of what I said... some of these things didn't get mentioned and some things were more in depth than I planned on being... You see, right before giving my talk I put this outline on the podium. I walked away from it to go press play on the cd player and the outline fell onto the ground. I came back to pick it up and jokingly said, "Maybe that's a sign God doesn't want me to follow this outline..." I meant it as a joke, but the truth is as I was talking the Holy Spirit took over and I really didn't follow all the way through. Kinda funny..... enjoy!

Open with “Anyway” by Martina McBride
I. The Need and Challenge of Prayer
A. Hunger and closeness to God
1. How God calls us - God calls each of us in a very personal way to a relationship
with Him.
2. My own personal experience of wanting to feel close to Him
a. A little bit about my freshman year of college and my dad’s accident….
B. Things that get in the way
1. Making the time
2. Getting easily distracted during prayer (phone calls, etc)
3. Not really feeling as though God is even listening to us
4. How our own minds tend to wander off (plans for the day, how to get the cute
boy to notice me, homework that needs to be done, party that week-end….)
C. My own personal attitude
1. Time
2. Feeling as though God does not hear what I am asking
3. Impatience
4.
II. What Prayer Is
A. Definition
1. Define relationships… what is needed for a good relationship (communication)
B. four types of prayer
1. Thanksgiving
2. Petition
3. Adoration
4. Reparation
C. How we pray
1. Open dialogue (talking to God)
2. Listening to Him
3. Telling Him needs
4. Writing letters to Him
5. Singing worship songs
6. Formal prayers (Our Father, the Rosary, etc…)
D. How our mindset should be while praying
1. We should be fully present
2. We need to be honest about our most personal and intimate feelings…
3. We must be fully open to whatever result God will give to the prayer… it may
not come out the way we feel it should, but later on the reason why will become
clear. (mention an example from my own life…)
4. We also need to be fair to God and spend time listening to Him… not just
talking.
III. Private and Communal Prayer
A. Talk about the value of each
B. My experiences with communal prayer (“Holy Hour,”)
IV. How I Pray
A. How I first began praying more
B. Daily Mass
C. In the car on the way to class…
D. Worship songs
E. Prayer/letter Journal
F. On my random drives when I need to vent
G. Eucharistic Adoration
H. Daily Mass (whenever I can go)
I. “God Calling” book
J. Mention a “close moment”
V. Prayer This Week-end
A. Mention how the chapel is open all week-end
B. Mention how there will also be time to pray in our small-groups
C. Remind them that every good relationship must have communication and
Our relationship with God should be the most important one we will ever have
So we must keep it nourished with daily prayer… He will always be there ready to
Listen to us when we need him. What we put into our relationship with God is what
we will get out of it.

Close with “I Lay It Down” by Matt Maher