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-Prayer is the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God.

-The spoken word is our way of communicating with friends and prayer is our way of communicating

with God.

- Prayer is essential to our spiritual lives. Jesus spoke to the disciples about the necessity of prayer.

There are times that various thoughts may distract us from our prayer but we have to work hard to

draw our thoughts back to God as a sign of our love for him.

How should we pray?

1. We should prepare ourselves to turn our thoughts to God.

2. We should pray with humility.

3. We should have faith and confidence that God will hear our prayer.

4. We should pray with resignation to the will of God.

5. We should pray with perseverance.

2 Forms of Prayer

1. Mental prayer that which is said interiorly2. Vocal prayer said by spoken words alone or with others

* formal those that follow a set pattern or formula

- prayers composed by someone else

* informal prayers using our own words

- allows us to talk to God sincerely about ourselves, offering to him our particular joys

and sorrows and asking him for the special help we need.

Prayers may be said for many reasons including:

1. adoration acknowledge Gods greatness and our dependence on him

2. thanksgiving give thanks to God for the blessings He has given us

3. contrition acknowledge our sins and pray to obtain forgiveness from God4. petition the most common prayer; those in which we ask God for blessings for ourselves and others

* The mass is the perfect prayer.

* Rosary is a great prayer; part of the spiritual life of many Catholics

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A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give us grace.

In Baptism, when the water is poured, the soul is actually cleansed and the new life of grace is actually

infused.

Christ himself gave us the sacraments so that we could share in His life and have that life nourished in

us.

*When we hear the priest in Confession say that our sins are forgiven, we know that God has forgiven

our sins.

*All of the sacraments make us holy by giving us grace or by restoring or increasing the life of grace in

us.

Sacraments that are lifelines to grace

1. Penance a great gift by which the sins we commit after baptism are forgiven

To make a good Confession and worthily receive the sacrament we must do 5 things.1. Before receiving the sacrament, you must examine your conscience.

2. You must have true sorrow, contrition, for your sins.

3. You must have a firm commitment not to sin again.

4. You must confess your sins honestly to the priest.

5. You must be willing to perform the penance which the priest gives you and then to do it.

2. Holy Eucharist the sacrament in which Our Lord is present Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity

under the appearances of bread and wine.

a means of receiving grace and, at the same time, is the source of grace Jesus,

himself.

Things we must do to benefit from the graces of the Eucharist

1. We must be in the state of grace when we receive Holy Communion.

2. We must believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the sacrament.

3. We must observe the Eucharistic fast.

4. After we receive Our Lord, we should spend time in thanksgiving thanking him for coming to us and

asking Jesus to help us.

* Even when we are unable to attend Mass we can make a spiritual communion in which we ask Our

Lord to come to us and dwell in us in a special way.

* The Eucharist is placed in a special container called a monstrance so that we may see and adore the

Body of Christ.