Conversations With Our Father Prayers from Sacred Readings

In a document issued by a gathering of bishops in Rome in 2005 it was stated: "An authentic spirituality of the Word demands that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together; for we speak to him when we pray; we hear him when we read the divine sayings" (n. 41). This is accomplished in "lectio divina", reading (lectio), meditation (meditatio), prayer (oratio) and contemplation (contemplatio) of select passages from Holy Scripture.. Oratio, as a prayer addressed to God, is an essential part of lectio divina. The same Holy Spirit who inspired God's Word in Scripture inspires the people of today with words of prayer. Recently eight parishioners from Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Morrisville, PA gathered to form the parish's first lectio divina prayer group. The group records their prayers in the journals they keep of their meetings, as a way of staying in touch with their experiences through the weeks and months of practice. The prayers contained in Conversations With Our Father were authored spontaneously in several meetings of the group and at the time of their writing were not intended for publication. In fact, their compilation for this volume wasn't considered until several months after they were written. It was only after the moderator of the group meetings -- hearing week after week how unique and beautiful so many of the prayers were - approached the church's pastor with the idea for this book. With his approval, each of the members was asked for their permission to publish their writings, even though some of them were deeply personal. All persons in the group agreed to participate in the project, with the proviso that names not be attached to the individual prayers. They agreed that by sharing some of the experiences that helped them build more personal relationships with a loving God, it will have the readers of this little book consider making prayerful reading of the Bible a central part of their own Christian lives.