Conversation with God
Prayers are powerful and intimate ways you communicate with God. Through prayers you build a personal relationship with God, letting him know your thoughts, feelings, and fears. It gives you hope and heals you emotionally and physically by strengthening your faith. Prayers allow the Holy Spirit to be present in your life and carry your burdens and heartaches. Consistent praying on a daily basis increases a higher level of peace and lessens stress. Prayers help you see circumstances from a different perspective, helping you think less of yourself and more of others. Prayers are known to change hearts and move mountains.
Prayers give us quiet time to meditate with God, to be reminded of his love, sacrifice, grace, and mercy.
The way you pray can unleash all the power that prayer can do. There really is no right or wrong way to pray, as long as your prayer is genuine and intentional.
Friendship with God: Two Great Teachers of Prayer
“Mental prayer is nothing else, in my opinion, but being on terms of friendship with God.” — St. Teresa of Ávila
In 12 Weeks to Love and Witness, prayer is not a section of the journal; it is the air that runs through all of it. The journal is dedicated to two great teachers of prayer, St. Teresa of Ávila and St. Ignatius of Loyola. Teresa taught us that prayer is simply friendship with God: honest, unhurried, interior. You do not need perfect words. You only need to show up. Ignatius taught us that prayer is also attention: learning to notice where God is already moving in the ordinary hours of your day, and responding with a willing heart.
Come Inward (Teresa): Be still, open, present to God in the quiet.
Go Forward (Ignatius): Let what you receive shape how you live, love, and witness.
The Daily Horarium: Sacred Hours
Your day already has a shape given by God. The Horarium, a rule of life practiced for over 1,500 years, helps you live inside it through five sacred hour anchors:
- Lauds (5–6 am): Morning Prayer & Scripture
- Terce (9 am): Morning Offering
- Sext (12 pm): Selah, a midday pause
- Vespers (6 pm): Evening Prayer
- Compline (9–10 pm): Night Prayer & the Examen
Begin simply with one anchor a day, grow into a balanced rhythm of three, or deepen into all five sacred hours lived daily.
Every section of the journal is a form of prayer. Come as you are. God is already here.