On First Level of Prayer

To pray, we must understand what prayer truly is. Silent prayer or vocal prayer is talking with God. Now, we must not pray out of habit but with and in faith; if we pray out of habit or move our lips; we are not praying.

We must pray with pure humility and compassion. Ok, this is reminding us of the basics on how to pray; let us dive in deep with the help of Madre Teresa de Avila.

The first level of prayer is where we start dying to self; removing the pride in our life and we grow in pure humility. We must die to self and let God in and take over our entire self. Pride kills prayer; if prayer is used to do as the other person in the temple; not the tax collector; but the one telling God how good he is; he is praising himself; we must die to self and give ourself to God freely.

Once we grow in humility; our prayers become as little children; and you see how simple their prayers are and God rejoices in those prayers and they also make the most wonderful confessions.

We become like a child to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; as my sister in the Carmelite order wrote so beautifully about; St. Theresa of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower. The Little Way that she wrote; where every little thing we do; dishes, laundry, cooking, sowing, cleaning; do those for God and give them to God; grow in humility of a child.

Now, my friends, how busy are you to say "I'm too busy to pray every day."? Are you as busy as the Pope? No, and he does the Liturgy of the Hours, a Rosary and says Mass every day and then prays a few more rosaries and the next hours of the day. His life seems to be horrible and super busy; but you see how humble he is and how simple; his life is turned into a prayer. All his trips, meetings, talks, blessings, special Masses; they are prayers within prayers. Our life should be like the Pope; prayers within prayers.

Our life should be one big prayer; everything we do; pray. Make the Sign of the Cross and ask God to help and offer it up to Him. The more we do; offering it up to God; the more humble we become. Our life will become a one total prayer. We do not need any of those Eastern cult practices; because our faith is true and God gave us the way to pray and we must follow those ways to pray.

The saints help us understand how to pray how God wants us to pray. I love Madre Teresa of Avila; because one she is a spiritual mother and taught me how to pray and she is still teaching me.

Once we grow in humility and live a humble and simple life; we can move onto the second mansion in our soul so we can grow even more in humility. We must grow in humility to start off when we pray; so we can pray in the right way. We must become like a child; as Jesus said to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

We can and should pray for humility; but be ready for an answer; God will give you a way to become a humble person. There is a wonderful Litany of Humility to help us grow in humility.

http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/humility.htm
The Litany of Humility

My favorite way of learning humility; kneeling at Confession; where you kneel and you open up your soul to your confessor; which could be your best friend or a priest that you know really well; which is hard; but that makes you even more humble. I love going to confession to my best friend Fr. Tony; whenever he's in town; because he gives great advice but also it's not as scary; which you think it should be; but it's not. Go to Confession very frequently; a week or two weeks; great thing to do.

May God bless you and help you learn humility and develop this great prayer life.