8/6/2019 Daily Prayer Guidelines 2011-12

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College Prep Physics

Mr. Black

Daily Prayer Guidelines for Physics Class

Not only is God present at every moment of our lives out of love and compassion, but the HolySpirit also stirs and moves us to pray, to meditate, to consider all that has been done for us.

Sometimes we may feel that God is silent, but the truth is that God speaks to us constantly:

  God speaks to our hearts when we open ourselves to the moments of grace that appear in our

lives.

  God speaks to us in the inspired words of the Bible.

  God speaks to us in the persons and events of our day.

  God speaks to us in all the needs of our families and of our fellow students and teachers, our

companions on the journey of life.

  God speaks to us at Mass when we are attentive to the Liturgy of the Word and especially

when we receive Christ in Holy Communion.

  God speaks the word of consolation to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

But we have to remember that God waits for our response. If we pray only when we feel like it,

we are missing the point. Prayer is a dialogue and we must do our part. There are many forms

of prayer:

  Blessing and Adoration  – A blessing is when God gives us a gift and we respond with joy

and gratitude. When you adore God, you acknowledge that you are a creature before the One

who created you.

  Petition  – The prayer form petition is asking God for something you need.

  Intercession  –  Intercession is a prayer of petition in which you ask God’s help for another 

person.

  Thanksgiving  – In thanksgiving we remember that we are creatures and God is our creator.

We become aware of the many gifts God has given us and we move into an attitude of 

gratitude.

  Praise  – Praise embraces all other forms of prayer and carries them to God. Praise expresses

our love for God simply because God IS.

There are three major expressions of the personal prayer life of Christians: vocal prayer,meditation, and contemplative prayer. In Meditation, you ponder God’s presence and activity in

your life and in the world. Contemplative prayer is a deep form of prayer in which you focus on

a deep awareness of the presence of God. Vocal prayer uses words to focus on your

conversation with God. Memorized prayers are the first way most people learn to pray vocally.

As you grow in your relationship with God, you will probably find that you express yourself 

more in your own words. We will utilize vocal prayer as the main expression of our daily class

prayers.

8/6/2019 Daily Prayer Guidelines 2011-12

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We will begin each class with a prayer. We will share in the responsibilities of leading our daily

class prayer. I will lead our class prayer on a regular basis and each student will be expected to

lead prayer on a rotating basis. Each student will be assigned to lead prayer for a specific day.

You will not have to lead prayer again until all the students in class have taken their turn.

Leading prayer is a required activity for this class. It will be your responsibility to come to classprepared to lead your prayer immediately after the bell rings. If you require any special

assistance for your prayer (i.e.: copies to be made, use of a computer audio / video / text file,

etc.), you will need to make arrangements with me a minimum of one day before your assigned

day to lead prayer.

Your prayer should be meaningful, but brief and to the point. A rough guideline is that your

prayer should take no more than a few minutes (1 or 2 max) from start to finish. It is OK to

utilize traditional prayers such as The Lord’s Prayer and The Hail Mary, or to use petitions to

pray for our needs. However, in order to keep our prayer fresh and meaningful, I will also

expect each of you to stretch yourselves and to lead prayers in non-traditional ways such as

special prayers authored by others, original written prayer, song (sung or recorded), etc. Please

get creative and really work to make your prayer meaningful for yourself and for your

classmates.

I realize, like most of the best things in life, prayer does not come automatically or easily for

many of us. At the very least, it will involve some time which I realize may be in short supply

for you. My hope is that by praying before class each day we will all do a better job of getting

focused on our spirituality and that we will all join together to praise God through our efforts to

gain knowledge.

 Mr. Black