Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
We need to keep talking about prayer.
I have a good friend, he lived down in Texas, whose name is Mike Gormley
and Mike has said this, he said,
"As Catholics, we're not often taught how to pray. We're taught how to repeat."
and I thought, "That is a great line," because it's kind of true.
It's like a lot of times, our prayer is like, "OK, say your prayers," right?
Here's how you pray: "Our Father, who art in heaven." Here's how you pray: "Hail Mary, full of grace."
Here's how you pray: "Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit."
Like those are all great prayers. Jesus prayed memorized prayers
He prayed this, probably prayed the psalms every day of his life
and so having memorized prayers to pray is a good thing.
I think one of the reasons why is because a) when Jesus was asked teach us to pray as John taught his disciples,
he taught them a memorized prayer, the Our Father.
Because, so you know God himself giving us these words-
b) sometimes I don't have the words, and so I just need to say, "God, You give me the words,"
and be able to pray the psalms or any of those other kind of inspired prayers is a really great gift
because I can't put into words how ... what I'm going through, but here the psalmist did it for me or God did it through the psalmist for me and for you.
But we don't necessarily know how to pray, so I'm gonna give you one of the simplest tools for prayer,
and if you use this simple tool, I guarantee you it will transform the way that you pray.
It comes from a place called IPF, which is the Institute for Priestly Formation down in Nebraska.
This habit of prayer is called the "pirate prayer" and it's called the pirate prayer because the initials to remind you of what to do are A.R.R.R.
so ARRR, right? Pirate prayer? ARRR, sorry that was lame.
Whenever we go into prayer, it's not a method, it's not a procedure, it's not a checklist.
What it is, as I said, it's kind of a disposition and a habit,
recognizing that God himself has brought us into prayer, we have to acknowledge his presence, right?
We have to acknowledge the fact that he's brought us into prayer and that we do not know how to pray as we ought to.
The Holy Spirit is the one who who enables us to pray
because without the Holy Spirit, we would be lost. When we go into prayer we need to say, "God help me to pray."
"Lord, teach me to pray." "Holy Spirit come and help me to pray."
So that's the first thing, not because it's like the checklist: Oh, ask the Holy Spirit,
but because I know that I need the Holy Spirit to help me to pray. OK, that's the first thing.
But then the A.R.R.R. So the first letter is A and it stands for Acknowledge.
I need to look into my heart, you know or to myself, and say,
"OK, what are my thoughts, feelings, and desires that I find inside of my heart or find inside of my mind right now?"
Because a lot of times we go into prayer we're like, "OK now, this is only the time for holy thoughts, feelings, and desires,"
like this is only the time for, like, thoughts, feelings, and desires that, like, I think would honor God.
If I'm feeling angry, I probably can't feel angry, then you feel even angrier.
Or if I have these, you know, wow, I found a lustful thought in my prayer, like this doesn't belong here at all.
Like just to acknowledge these thoughts:
"I'm feeling really greedy, Lord." "I'm feeling so anxious." "I'm feeling so stressed out."
"I'm feeling ... " It's fine.
Just look into your heart and acknowledge the thoughts, feelings, and desires that you find there.
If we're not willing to be honest with the Lord, if we're not willing to actually just humbly be transparent and vulnerable before him
and even acknowledge to ourselves, "Here are the thoughts, feelings, and desires that I'm experiencing,"
then our prayer is gonna be about something else. It's gonna be about, it's going to be about someone else.
It will not be you and God relating. It will just simply be God and this version of you that's like the "prayer version" of you, right?
So, we have to acknowledge what are the thoughts, feelings, and desires of your heart at that moment.
The second letter is R. Relate.
So, whatever the thoughts, feelings, and desires that I found in my heart, I then relate them to God.
I tell God about them. Now I know what happens.
What happens is you're like, "We have to tell God about your thoughts, feelings, and desires?
I don't know if you know this about God, Father Mike, but he knows everything."
Yes, that is true, I did know that.
But I do know that you know and we know that God knows everything.
But there's something different about God knowing the story—
he knows what's in your heart, He knows what happened in your day—
and actually telling him what happened in your day, telling him what actually is in your heart.
At the risk of embarrassing family members of mine, at one point, we had this camp this last, this last summer.
We run, a camp we run, for senior high kids and I had two of my ... a niece and nephew went
and it was the best. I love them so much, they're awesome.
I got into my car, I didn't know how their week was going at all because, I mean, I was there for the whole week.
I knew what was going on, I saw them the whole time, but we didn't really check in
because they're with their friends and I'm doing my work and stuff, you know.
So I give them a ride back to the parents' place and they got in the car I was like,
"So guys, how was the weekend or- how was the week?"
And for the next hour and 45 minutes, it was like, "It was this and it was this." I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is awesome."
Like the Lord was moving their hearts and just like drawing them closer to himself.
They were telling me all these stories and all these details about like, you know, friends and then what they did
and what God had done and it was awesome.
And then we went to their dad's place
and we walked in because the dad wanted to see them, he hadn't seen him for a week.
And so we came in and he's like, "Hey guys, it's good to see you," gives them a big hug
and he's like, "How was camp?" They're like, "It was fine."
(laughs) I'm like, "Wait a second. You have way more to say about camp than, than "It was fine."
No, I was able to tell him later on like, "Oh my gosh, they shared this." I mean not anything personal, right,
but, you know, things that were shareable. I do have discretion, I don't tell everything to everyone.
Um, I was able to share him, share with him what they had said about like,
"Oh, you know, the Lord had revealed this," or "the Lord had shared this,"
or they really experienced the blessing in that, in that area.
And it was good, it was good for their dad to know what his kids, whom he loved so much,
had experienced at camp but there's something even more powerful than the dad just knowing what they went through:
When the kid comes home and says, "OK, Dad, you might even know but I'm gonna tell you."
Why? Because when we relate, we're entrusting those thoughts, feelings, and desires to God.
So even when it comes to your day you can do this at any moment of your day,
to be able to tell the Lord, in prayer, like, "Here's what happened in my day," not because he doesn't know it,
but because when you share it, when you relate it to him, you're entrusting it to him.
The third letter is the second R and that is Receive.
And so in that moment where I've acknowledged what's in my heart,
I've related it to the Father, I have entrusted it to the Father,
and now I receive from the Father.
Now, that can be, that could be a word from him.
It can be like a, "I'll open up my Scripture and I let him speak to me through that."
It can be any number of things.
But the question I love is from a priest named Father Scott Trainor and
Father Scott Trainor, he's a priest from the diocese, I think Sioux Falls, he's in South Dakota
and he had, he asked, he said it like this,
"When you receive, you can ask the question, "How is God loving me right now?"
I love that question! OK, how is God loving me right now?
Sometimes you think, "I don't feel anything, God." Yeah, but he's loving you.
So, "OK, in all this, God, how are you loving me right now?"
and to be able to say, "Well, actually you're loving me because here I am in a warm building."
"God, you're loving me because here I am and I had, had lunch today."
"God, you're loving me because here I am and I'm able to come into your presence, even if I don't feel anything."
"You were the one who brought me here. That's how you're loving me."
"God, how are you loving me right now?"
"You're loving me because you gave me a job and I'm able to work hard at that job and feed my family."
Whatever that thing is, ask the question, to receive, like how is God loving me right now?
and then you simply receive his love and say, "Actually I acknowledge that, God you are loving me this way.
I accept it. I give you permission to love me."
The fourth letter, the third R, is Resolve.
What am I going to do? Like how am I going to move forward? It's not like "Now from now on, I'm never gonna ________"
It's just, What's one step forward you want to take,
knowing what you found in your heart after you've related to the father,
after he's loving you, the resolution can simply be,
"Lord, I'm gonna, I resolve to continue letting you love, continue letting you love me in this way."
"Lord, I resolve to continue to be aware of how you love me in this other way."
"Lord, I resolve to talk with you more and more about what I found in my heart and be more transparent, be more honest with you."
so A-R-R-R - the pirate prayer: Acknowledge, Relate, Receive, and Resolve.
It's not a technique, it is a habit of prayer.
You don't have to go, "I went from A to R to R to R." It can be A to R to R to A to-
You know, all the different "R"s. Just free-flowing, it's not a technique, it's a habit,
guided by the Holy Spirit, that my guess, will change your life.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike.
God bless.