Last night our Prayer Ministry met for the first time this year.

This is the most positive, encouraging, and supportive group in my parish. I love these meetings (which is impressive, because I’m a meeting-o-phobe so avoid meetings as much as possible).

I invited about 30 people to my house and 10 showed up (a perfect sized group).

We met at 6pm and had dinner. I made the main dish which was simply chicken wraps, and asked everyone else to bring something. I don’t worry about trying to organize who brings what; if we have five salads, that’s okay, and if we have five cakes that’s awesome.

Around 7pm I started the meeting with a brief prayer, then (and this is the most important part of leading a group prayer) I shut up and let everyone else pray for whatever they wanted to.

Then, I told the group some specific and amazing things that happened last year; things I know happened because God was honoring their prayers.

After I finished telling them how amazing they are and how much I appreciate their ministry I asked them what they wanted to do this year and I shut up so they could talk (keeping your mouth shut is a good technique for leading a group).

My job for the rest of the night was simply to keep the group on track . . . which was difficult because they have big hearts and want to help everyone in the church.

I also (subtly) made sure every idea had a clear action step attached to it and that someone was in charge of that step.

When the conversation dwindled I closed with a prayer (again giving everyone else as much time to pray as they wanted). They helped me clean up my house and then stayed around to chat for a while before leaving.

Notes:

• I now have a refrigerator full of food.
• My two kids were there and they were loud and noisy, but everyone seemed fine with that. When I invited people, I told them to bring their kids if they wanted. None did, but I let them know up-front that this was a kid-friendly meeting.
• I feel like we are now ready for our parent meeting this weekend.
• I’m filled with joy. The people involved in our Prayer Ministry are the most humble and loving people I know. I cant wait until we get together again.

I’ve tried and failed at every kind of prayer technique the Church teaches. I’m inspired by Brother Lawrences’s simple “Practicing the Presence of God.” And I’m in awe of people who have the discipline to pray the Divine Office without fail.

I used to assume these two prayer techniques were mutually exclusive, as if they were spiritual gifts given to “Type A” and “Type B” personalities.

While reading some of St. Teresa of Avila’s writings on prayer, I discovered something that validated a recent experience I had. St. Teresa outlines a specific technique for developing a mediative and contemplative prayer life (she considers meditation and contemplation to be two different things). So for years I categorized her as a disciplined prayer warrior . . .which she was.

But she makes one powerful point that I some how missed until a couple weeks ago. She says that one of the keys to developing a meditative or contemplative prayer life is preparing yourself to pray. As I read over her thoughts more closely I discovered that what she means by preparing yourself to pray is very similar to Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God. In fact, she says that if you don’t prepare yourself to pray during during your regular daily schedule then you won’t be able to pray when it is time to meditate. And the opposite is true too. That if we don’t set aside specific times of prayer then we will be unable to experience what Brother Lawrence calls the Presence of God in our daily lives.

They aren’t mutually exclusive, but completely dependent on each other.

After my most recent failure to pray like Brother Lawrence, I tried to pray the Divine Office. But I didn’t feel like the Divine Office alone would get me close enough to “praying at all times” so I threw in couple rosaries and a few other traditional prayers. My prayer schedule was so intense that I didn’t really have time to do anything but work and pray (sound familiar?), and somewhere in the middle of all that extra business I found myself being constantly aware of God’s presence. I’m not sure I experience the kind of Presence of God Brother Lawrence felt, but I couldn’t do anything without thinking about my next round of prayers. I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed praying so much in my entire life.

So what happened? Well, you know, I got lazy and the whole thing fell apart. . .again.

I find that my computer does more to distract me from my regular prayer than anything else. Here are a couple of web pages I use to pray during the day.

• Universalis-Liturgy of the Hours, as well as daily mass readings.
• Sacred Space-Questions for reflection as well as the daily Gospel reading.

The easiest and most effective thing our ministry ever did was organize a Prayer Ministry. Here is why we did it, and the steps we took to get the ministry going.

I had recently listened to a talk given by Fr. Pat Martin who works with people who have various disabilities. Years ago he organized a group of business people to raise money to build a new center for his ministry. They planned some brilliant fundraisers, but each one failed because of a detrimental act of nature such as “fog as thick as pea soup” which made the state shut down several major roads and effectively canceled their fundraiser. Eventually, Fr. Pat realized they had left Christ out of their plans; they were trying to do ministry without God. Fr. Pat immediately canceled their next fundraiser and they all went on a prayer pilgrimage where they turned all their work over to God. After that, God blessed their efforts and their center was built.

The same thing happened at my church. My first couple of years here I worked between ten and twelve hours a day, planned all kinds of retreats and events, and studied tirelessly to lean how to be a better youth minister. All of my efforts resulted in a ministry that limped along. I felt like a failure, and to be completely honest, I almost quit; If I couldn’t help this ministry, I felt I should get out of the way and let someone else be in charge. And that, of course, is exactly what God wanted me to do – to get out of his way and let him be in charge.

We organized a simple prayer ministry in order to bring our ministry in alignment with God’s will, and since then, God has been honoring those prayers and blessing this church. Great leaders have shown up who are taking ownership of the ministry; Great teens have shown up who are open to God’s love. This is an exciting time to be a youth minister at this church, and the best part is it’s not about me, it’s all about God.

Finding new volunteers is usually the most difficult part of this job, but I had no trouble finding people to join our Prayer Ministry.

• Start by praying – right now.
• Every November my parish sends out “Time, Talent, and Treasure” surveys inviting people to participate in our church’s various ministries. With my Youth Commission’s blessing, I added a category called “Prayer Ministry.” The first year we sent that survey out fifteen people signed up . . . it was that easy.
  • If you don’t have a “Time, Talent, and Treasure” survey, or don’t want to wait until next November (please, don’t wait until next November), email, call, or talk to as many parents as possible. This is such a simple ministry and almost everyone agrees in the importance of prayer, so inviting people to pray is relatively easy.
• We sent those fifteen a letter (which I will include so you can see how unimpressive it was) inviting them to a meeting at which we would organize the Prayer Ministry. Five people showed up and they were all carrying calendars – It was the perfect number and they were the perfect people for an organizational meeting.
• At the bottom of this article, I will include the agenda for our first meeting. We basically wanted to answer two questions:
  • Why we wanted to do this (our mission statement)
  • How we wanted to do this (our strategy)
• We came up with half a dozen great ideas but we all agreed to keep this as simple as possible.
• Here is what we do:
  • Once a month, 30 minutes before our first Confirmation meeting of the month, we pray the rosary for our teens in the Eucharistic chapel. . . Yep, that’s it. There are other ideas and projects in the works, but our foundation is always the rosary.
• One important thing to do is to find someone else to officially lead the ministry.
• One of those original five is the leader of our Prayer Ministry. That means once a month, about a week before the meeting, she sends out an email to people she knows, including me, which reminds me to send out an email to the parents. My job is to support, empower, and encourage her ministry. Remember our job is “to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry” (Ephesians 4:12).
• We’ve also set up a Google calendar and put announcements in the bulletin, but emails and personal invitations seem to be the most effective way to invite new people to pray with us.
• When necessary, the original five will stick around after the rosary to discuss other plans.

If you don’t already have people praying for your ministry, get a Prayer Ministry started today (Pray Now). Don’t plan anything, just connect with some parents, get them together, and let them plan and run the ministry. God will bless you if you humbly turn your ministry over to him.

The letter I sent:

Dear <VOLUNTEER’S NAME – with only 15 letters to write, I thought typing their individual names was worth the effort>

Thank you for your interest in joining our Youth Ministry’s Prayer Ministry.

We’re going to have our first meeting <DATE>, at <TIME>, in <LOCATION>.

Since this is a new ministry (one that is long overdue) we need to get ourselves organized. That will be the purpose of our first meeting: to decide exactly how we want to work together to pray for our youth ministry.

I have a few ideas, but I would like for you to bring ideas to the meeting as well. Here are a few questions that might help you come up with some ideas:

• Who exactly do we want to pray for (teens, volunteers, sponsors, parents, etc.)?
• How do we want to pray?
• Do we need/want to meet regularly? Should we organize a method for praying together, or on our own, or both?

I’ll serve you a delicious dinner, so if you’re going to come, please RSVP so I’ll know how much food to bring. My email is: <YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS>

If you have questions please call or email me.

Working with you in ministry,

<YOUR NAME>

First Meeting’s Agenda:

• Pray
• Food and Chat (Get to know each other.)
• Pick someone to take meeting notes.
• Brainstorm Mission Statement (Why We Are Here):
  • Our Prayer Ministry exists to pray for every person, program, and event connected to the Youth Ministry, and to invite other people to pray with us.
• Brainstorm how we want to fulfill our Mission Statement:
  • Prayer sponsors – make bookmarks/business cards/refrigerator magnets/etc. with teen’s name and give them out after masses.
  • Traveling Youth Ministry Prayer Candle.
  • Bulletin announcements
  • Pictures of Confirmation candidates
  • Monthly Rosary (This is the idea that developed into the backbone of our Prayer Ministry.
• Do we need to meet again to get organized? If so, what exactly is the goal of that meeting?
• Closing Prayer
  • Impromptu prayer by me, then I asked everyone if there was anything going on in their lives they would like us to pray for, and we closed with an Our Father.

Here is an adapted form of Lectio Divina I have used to close most of my small groups for the last couple of years. I started doing this after reading Contemplative Youth Ministry by Mark Yaconelli and over the past two years I adapted his technique based on the suggestions of my teenagers. I enjoy doing this for two reasons:

1. The students have told me they like doing it – always a plus.
2. On the days when everything goes wrong I still feel like we’ve done something good after closing with this prayer.

• For the reading, use the Sunday’s Gospel whenever possible.
  • Use the short version or trim it down if it is too long.
• Use a candle to change the room’s lighting to help make the atmosphere more prayerful.

1. Have everyone sit in a circle around the candle.
2. Begin with the sign of the cross.
3. Read the passage.
   1. Pause.
   2. When you do this for the first time you may need to encourage the students to try and be comfortable with the silence. I went through a period of awkward giggling, but now the students tell me they enjoy the silence.
4. Read the passage again
   1. If you are just beginning to use this prayer technique, then before the second reading encourage the students to listen for a word or a phrase that stands out to them. When that word or phrase comes to them, they should try to meditate on it for a while. After explaining this a couple of times you can eliminate the explanations entirely and the prayer will flow more smoothly.
   2. Sometimes the students don’t calm down entirely until after the first reading. So, for the second reading, I try to subtly add a little “James Earl Jones” sound to my voice and to make the scripture come to life.
   3. Take a long pause after the second reading to give the students time to meditate.
   4. I tell the students they have three options (listed below) and then go around the circle.
      1. Pass
      2. Share the word or phrase
      3. Share what they think God is trying to tell them through that word or phrase. (I am often amazed by the insights that the obnoxiously rowdy boys have. . .and by the fact that they are the ones who actually share their thoughts for a change.)

5. After everyone has shared, say a quick impromptu prayer of thanks then continue the prayer by ask the students if there is anything going on in their lives, or anyone in their lives they would like us to pray for.
6. Close by asking God to grant all of our spoken and unspoken prayers, in the name of the Father . . .