Prayer

 

Engaging with Tradition

 

Thursday 24th April - St Augustine

Thursday 1st May - St Bernard

Thursday 8th May - St Thomas Aquinas

Thursday 15th May - St Teresa of Avila

Thursday 22nd May - St Vincent de Paul

Thursday 29th May  - St Alphonsus Liguori

 

Thursday evenings beginning at 7.30pm in the Sacristy
(entrance between the Church and the chaplaincy)
For more information contact Fr Christopher

People’s need for prayer is as old as time and as wide as the world.  Prayer has ebbed and flowed and evolved with the passing of the years and according to the temper of the times, because it is a human activity as well as divine.  In recent times, while some have declared God to be dead, others have searched for exotic new ways of praying, still others have turned to the God of their fathers in search of meaning and help.

There are lots of fads and misconceptions about prayer, and so in these 6 weeks we will look at the tradition of prayer in the Roman Catholic Church, taking 6 saints as our guides, each contributing a unique emphasis; Ss. Augustine, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Vincent de Paul and Alphonsus de Liguori.

We will look first at the life and theological teaching of each saint, and then see how these helped to develop and articulate their own particular ways of praying. Our prayer too will arise from our state of life, our history, and so our particular nature with its own complex shading of light and dark. Prayer is offering all this to God, and then offering God to the world in which his Providence has set us.

On 26th May we celebrate the Solemnity of St Philip, the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory. The Oratory is a place of prayer, and so in preparation for the celebrations on the 26th there will be a time of prayer for nine days following the 5.15pm Mass. More information will be available nearer the time.