Don't know what to say? Learn to Pray with St. Augustine!
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We all need to learn to pray. The saints are our best teachers, because they show us how we frail human beings can open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and pray in union with Jesus. In this video, I share a "pro tip" from St. Augustine about the importance of silent prayer of the heart, on the one hand, and wordy prayers, on the other. I draw from the following quotation from his "Letter to Proba on Prayer" (Ep 130, Chapter 9.18).“When we cherish uninterrupted desire along with the exercise of faith and hope and charity, we pray always. But at certain stated hours and seasons we also use words in prayer to God, that by these signs of things we may admonish ourselves, and may acquaint ourselves with the measure of progress which we have made in this desire, and may more warmly excite ourselves to obtain an increase of its strength. For the effect following upon prayer will be excellent in proportion to the fervor of the desire which precedes its utterance. And therefore, what else is intended by the words of the apostle – Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) – than desire without intermission, from Him who alone can give it, a happy life …? … But at certain hours we recall our minds from other cares and business, in which desire itself somehow is cooled down, to the business of prayer, admonishing ourselves by the words of our prayer to fix attention upon that which we desire, lest what had begun to lose heat become altogether cold, and be finally extinguished, if the flame be not more frequently fanned.”