Meditation or mental prayer is conversation with God and transformation in God.

Greeting. Start personally. This is can be as simple as, “Hi Jesus” to a sign of the cross and invocation of the Holy Spirit, or something like, “Dear, Lord be with me as I pray. Give me the gift of prayer and perseverance. Open my mind and my heart to experience your love and your truth. Amen” Basically we are calling to mind and heart God’s loving presence with us and allowing ourselves to enter that presence.

Listen and See. Read a gospel passage and enter into it. See what Jesus is doing and listen to his words. Keep your focus on the passage until your mind and/or your heart starts to engage with the passage. Keep reading the passage slowly, over and over until you engage.

Engaging with the passage is like a conversation, but can be much deeper. The direction of the conversation depends on those involved. In this conversation you want Jesus to take the lead as much as possible while sharing your own life with him as deeply as possible. We want to open up and orient our life to him. Share with him and discuss your needs, fears, hopes, questions, prayers for others, everything. Sometimes, we might find everything is too much, or we just want to give it all to Jesus, so surrender it all to Him. As you give over to God and allow him into your life and heart, you may start to experience his presence with you. Allow yourself to rest in that presence and just stay and abide in that presence and warmth of God’s love. If you experience a higher form of prayer give over to it. If you become distracted, then start again and refocus on Jesus. 

Resolve to put into practice any inspirations you might have from your prayer time. Lock them in by committing them to any action list you currently use, or start a todo list.

Thank the Lord for this time of prayer.