Helpful hints for meditation from Fr. Rene Shatterman and Saint Jose Maria Escriva:

There are many ways to pray... as many as there are people praying! Here are some helpful hints, especially for a time of meditation (talking to God in your own words and listening to God).

1. God’s prayer book: the Sacred Scriptures, especially the New Testament and especially the Gospels which enable us to follow Christ, to witness his miracles and listen to his words.

2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part IV.

3. Meditate the words of the saints and other spiritual writers.

4. St. Josemaria suggested that we could pray on a particular devotion each day of the week:

  •     Sunday: the Blessed Trinity
  •     Monday: the Holy Souls in Purgatory
  •     Tuesday: the Holy Guardian Angels
  •     Wednesday: St. Joseph
  •     Thursday: the Holy Eucharist
  •     Friday: the Passion of Christ
  •     Saturday: the Blessed Virgin Mary

5. Another suggestion: follow the alphabet and pray about the ideas, inspirations and resolutions that might arise from pondering those words. Here are words, taken in part from the Subject Index of “The Way, Furrow, The Forge.” (Obviously there is abundant material here. On a given day, one might simply draw inspiration from one word or from some of the words under one letter. This can be a way of getting started or going deeper in meditation.)

  •     Apostolate, abandonment, the Angels
  •     Blessed Trinity, Blessed Virgin Mary
  •     Charity, chastity, cheerfulness, the Church, Communion of Saints, conversion, contrition, confession
  •     Dedication, divine filiation, daring, desires, devotions the Eucharist, effort, examination of conscience
  •     Faith, family, friends, fortitude, fidelity, fraternity
  •     Grace, generosity, goals, gratitude
  •     Holiness, humility, heart, hope, heaven
  •     Interior life, identity with God, intensity of Love, instrument
  •     Jesus Christ, judgment, justice
  •     Kindness, Christ the King and his kingdom, 
  •     Love, life, light, Lord
  •     Mercy, Mary, magnanimity, much more
  •     New, now, naturalness, Norms of Piety
  •     Obedience, order, offer all, obstacles
  •     Patience, perseverance, piety, poverty, purity, presence of God, participation
  •     Questions posed by Our Lord, quantity and quality of prayer
  •     Revelation, religion, righteousness, recollection, right intention, reparation, responsibility, resolutions
  •     Sanctity, salvation, sacrifice, serve, simplicity, sincerity
  •     Time, temperance, temptations
  •     Understanding, unity, universality
  •     Virtue, vocation, victory
  •     Work, the Will of God, it is worthwhile, when, where, why, who, the world
  •     Youthfulness, staying young
  •     Zeal for the living God! I am a zero!