Homily Topic: Prayer is the Key to Our Relationship with God

From the Catholic Liturgy for Sunday, July 24, 2016. Gospel of Luke 11:1-13.  Jesus teaches us how to pray by giving us the "Lord's Prayer" (a.k.a., the "Our Father") which is both THE perfect prayer (since it comes from Jesus Himself) and a model of how to pray, how to speak heart-to-heart with God in praise, worship, thanksgiving and petition. Prayer as a human activity it is something we have to be taught, but most of us never have this experience of learning how to pray. We learn and memorize "prayers" but as we grow up no one ever shows us HOW to pray...and so many of us get stumped even before we begin. Try using the word ALTAR to help you form your own prayer of the heart.  Each letter of this word reminds us of what to pray as Jesus taught us: A (adore God)l. L (express your love for God), T (thank God for the blessings in our life), A( ask God for what you need in mind, body and spirit), R (resolve to live out your relationship with God every day).