Some approaches to prayer lending themselves to use by individuals and small groups.

• The more a person is comfortable with prayer, the more they feel free to choose their own way of praying.

• Scripture is filled with examples of men and women who pray in different contexts and with a great variety of approaches, but all take prayer seriously.

• "The more we receive in silent prayer the more we can give. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says through us" (Mother Theresa).

• Remember the golden rule: "Pray as you can and not as you can’t".

• Remember the importance of the start, finish, and the review when "Praying with Scripture".

• Is another approach to "Praying the Scriptures".

• This is a way many, though not all, find helpful of entering into the Gospel stories and getting to know Jesus Christ in a different way.

• Use any scene from the Gospels that allows you to become part of the action!

• The story is only the starting point, and whatever happens from there is your own journey.

• Choose a Gospel passage and familiarise yourself with the story by reading it 2 or 3 times.

• Offer yourself, the time, and your imagination to God.

• Ask God, Jesus, the Spirit, for what you most deeply desire, it may be e.g. the words of H&P 671 "To see more clearly, love more dearly, to follow more nearly, day by day"; it may be simply to be open to the Spirit.

• In imagination, which for some is strongly visual, but for others feeling or sensing, set the scene from your Gospel passage. Enter the scene, the story, as if you are there. Take your time and imaginatively engage all 5 senses, taste, touch, smell, seeing, hearing.

• Become part of the story. "Who are you?" Take up a role, become part of the action! Let the scene unfold naturally.

• Speak to God, Jesus, the Spirit about the images and feelings arising. Say it ‘as it is’ expressing what you desire. Be still, and let God be with you.

• Bring your prayer to a close and review the prayer as earlier suggested … Look back over the prayer and get in touch with how you reacted or felt … Is this saying anything about yourself, others, God?

• In experiencing an imaginative exercise individuals are in touch with all manner of things. "I couldn’t imagine the scene but somehow imagined Jesus’ presence"; "I found myself back in childhood when …"; "I thought I didn’t have an imagination because I couldn’t visualise pictures but I was there as part of the story"; "I sensed a deep peace, a calm"; "Nothing much happened to me but …"; "I found myself walking down a road with Jesus". There are no right answers only your experience to be shared.

John 1.35-39; 2.1-12; 5.1-9; 20.19-21

Mark 10.46-52

Luke 8.26-39, 43-48; 15.11-32

Matthew 8.23-27; 14.13-21

• Reflect slowly on these words, a phrase at a time.

"I give to Christ my hands to do his work, my feet to walk the path he wants me to walk, my eyes to see him in all people, my tongue to speak his words of peace and hope, my heart to love compassionately as he loves, my mind to know and serve him, my whole self to use as he chooses".

OR

Our Covenant Prayer, a wonderful prayer for all seasons.

"Christ has many services to be done…" "Yet the power to do all these things is given us in Christ, who strengthens us".