Information and Communications Blog

Search for Ideas on the Topic of Prayer

Prayer is one topic which is popular since it applies
to all Catholics regardless of age or knowledge of the
Catholic faith. One can write many things about prayer
since the Catholic tradition is very rich in this regard.

A veritable source of content for the topic of prayer
is the praying of the rosary. And the topic of praying
the rosary is also related to Marian devotions and
the basic mysteries of our Christian faith - as is
embedded in the joyful, sorrowful, luminous [or light
mysteries] and glorious mysteries.

Another topic for prayer is meditation and
contemplation. Here, you can also relate the
topics of lectio divina, or spiritual reading,
and the methods of meditation that many people
employ to achieve a state of peace and tranquillity.

From the topic of meditation and contemplation,
we can also talk about Eucharistic adoration -
a prayer done before the Blessed Sacrament.
This prayer is one of praise, reverence and
as the term states, “adoration”. Many methods
are also employed for this type of prayer. One
can write about them and be more specific when
it comes to giving sources for guides and
books used when praying before the
Blessed Sacrament.

Many books and documents speak about the topics
on prayer stated above. As regards the praying
of the rosary and devotion to Mary, the latest
document on this is an Apostolic Letter by
John Paul II called “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”.
If you go to the Vatican site, you can copy
the document after making a search for it
in the web site. This is an important document
since it formalizes the inclusion of the
luminous or light mysteries into the traditional
15 mysteries of the rosary.

Another very good source for praying the
rosary and everything related to Marian devotion
is the book “God Alone”. This is a compilation
of all the written works of St. Louis-Marie
Grignion de Montfort - a French priest and
founder of three congregations - who taught
a doctrine of Mary that has influenced many
Catholics who are very devoted to the Blessed
Mother. If you want an idea of what this
book contains, you can read the review made
on it at, “
God Alone: The Collected Writings
of St. Louis-Marie de Montfort“.

For the topic of spiritual reading or
lectio divina, the book of Thelma Hall, RC,
“Rediscovering Lectio Divina: With 500
Scripture Texts for Prayer”, is very
very good. For initial ideas to write
on this prayer, you may also wish to
read the article written on the web site
about this topic. It is entitled,

Lectio Divina.

For the best summary or compendium on the
topic of prayer that encompasses many
things in a brief presentation, the two
books by
Therese Borchard entitled
“Our Catholic Prayer” and “Our
Blessed Mother” are excellent sources.
These are very good books in that they
encompass the topic of Catholic prayer in
many contexts: scriptural, in art and
liturgy, history, etc.

For the aspect of prayer that involves
meditation or contemplation, the books
of
Fr. John Main, OSB, are very good
guide books that can help one write
about the topic of meditation. Also,
the ideas presented by another author,
a Vietnamese Cistercian monk and abbot,
Joseph Chu Cong, in his book “
page one or

page two of our catalog on books.