On January 12-14, 2018, I went on a retreat with the Servant Sisters of The Sacred Heart. The retreat was called “Stepping Stones To Prayer.” There are six stepping stones–Humility, Forgiveness, Silence, Love of Neighbor, and finally, prayer. Humility, Forgiveness, Silence, and Love of Neighbor all lead up to prayer. To be able to pray properly, we need all of these virtues and qualities.

First is humility. To be able to pray, we all need to be humble. Recall the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying. The Pharisee was prideful and thought he was the best, and the tax collector was humble and thought he was the worst and not worthy. They both prayed, but who’s prayer was better? The tax collector’s prayer was better. That is because to pray properly, we need humility.

Second is forgiveness. If we pray to God to forgive us, to obtain true forgiveness, we need to forgive others. Forgiveness always goes both ways. God will always forgive you. He will forgive the greatest sins. We must be willing to forgive others, just as God is always willing to forgive us if we are truly sorry. Remember the stories in the Bible of the unforgiving servant, the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors, and the story of how David forgave Absalom. These and many other stories in the Bible are stories of forgiveness that we can learn much from.

The third stepping stone to prayer is silence. Silence is good for praying. Without silence there are just too many distractions. The devil tries to make distractions to get us away from God. Noise gets out attention. But silence lets out attention be fixed on God and lets us hear God’s voice. We talk to God, but God also talks to us. We need silence to pray and hear God’s voice.

The next stepping stone is love of neighbor. To love God we have to love our neighbors first. But who are our neighbors? Our number one neighbors are our families. We need to love our family since God put us in a family. Even though we are with our family more than any other people, sometimes our families are the hardest to love. Our other neighbors are our friends, classmates, and those with which we work. Strangers are also our neighbors. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan! Forgotten people and those who are abused and unloved are our neighbors.  And the poor souls in Purgatory are also our neighbors. God wants everyone to be our neighbor. Remember Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta (And many, many other saints!) and how she showed love of neighbor to the poor and sick. Recognize people’s dignity and try to see Christ in everyone just as she did. We need to pray to love others the way God loves us.

The fifth and final stepping stone to prayer is prayer itself. There are verbal or spoken prayers, meditation, and contemplation. Contemplation is the highest level of prayer. Contemplation is pure love of God and a glimpse of heavenly happiness. When praying, remember that prayer isn’t a feeling. You don’t have to feel anything to pray. We pray for: petition, thanksgiving, adoration, and contrition. For as much as we ask of God, we need to remember to thank God for everything He has given us. Thanksgiving is the type of prayer that is often forgotten. Don’t give up on God or think He isn’t listening to you. Have perseverance! God doesn’t want 99% of you; He wants 100%! God demands a lot of us, so we need to think of Him always. Do everything for the honor and glory of God!