Introductions
Your turn!
Please tell me:
1. Your Name
2. Where you minister
3. Your favorite way to pray (if you have one!)
Today’s Plan
1. Why prayer is important
2. How to make prayer meaningful
3. Concrete examples of how to integrate prayer into your classroom
4. Praying through an Examen to model these ideas
Prayer - Why Bother?
Tips for Making Prayer Work
- Be prepared and have a plan
- Utilize a prayer journal
- Share what you know and love
- Go to the Chapel
- Ambience Matters
Be prepared and have a plan
Benefit: It makes prayer feel purposeful, rather than something thrown onto the beginning of class. It also allows you to integrate class material into the prayer itself.
Suggestion: Have the same type of prayer said on each day of the week. That way you always know what to do on a given day, but each day feels unique from the one before and after it.
Utilize a Prayer Journal:
Benefit: Students will have a way of actively participating in prayer, and be able to look back at their reflections throughout the year to see tangible growth.
Suggestion: Utilize what is written in a prayer journal during a reflection assignment at some point during the year, both to help them see their own growth, and to help make prayer time feel more purposeful as a part of class.
Share what you know and love
Benefit: It will come more naturally for you, and therefore feel more authentic for students, if you share a way of praying or specific prayer that you find personally meaningful.
Suggestion: Spend some time exploring different types of prayer on your own time, especially over longer breaks, to see what you find engaging and meaningful and could therefore share with your students.
Go to the Chapel
Benefit: If Christ is present in your school, the more time students can spend in His presence the better!
Suggestion: Pick one day a week, a month, or a quarter to go to the Chapel. Bring a speaker, play some instrumental music, and allow students at least 5 or 10 minutes to truly enter into this time of prayer.
Ambience Matters
Benefit: Creating a physical space that is conducive to prayer can help students stay focused and truly enter in to the experience,
Suggestion: Think about different senses and how we can change the environment to signal to students it is time for prayer, and create an ambience that encourages prayer and reflection.
Sight: can you adjust the lighting so its softer?
Sound: Can you play gentle reflection music, or quiet any distracting noises?
Smell: Can you light a candle or use a diffuser?
My Prayer Schedule
Monday - Prayer Intentions
Tuesday - Gratitude List
Thursday - Decade of the Rosary
Friday - Ignatius Examen