This website is a storage of prayer briefs or brief prayers derived from the Christian and ancient Jewish (Biblical) traditions of raising spontaneous prayer to God. They will help you to:
- Pray without ceasing
- Be watchful
- Have your lamp burning
- Keep your gaze heavenward
- Live a fruitful life
- Serve the Reign of God
- Enjoy a relationship with God
In Christian Tradition, aspirations, ejaculations, and spiritual communions are short prayers raised
sporadically to God in our hearts throughout the day. They are typical of souls who have God in mind and so spontaneously refer to Him. Such prayers, because they are short, simple, and spontaneous, are possible at all times in all circumstances and will come to us easily at the moment of our death if we are in the habit of praying them.
Spontaneous communication with God is not an exceptional thing for Christians nor reserved for priests, ministers, celibates, and consecrated servants but should be our common way of life. We are children of the New Covenant (Heb. 8: 10-11).
Sometimes we are mindful of the presence of God in our lives but fall short of words. It may help us to use the words of other people that may have left some impression on us. There are many words of Jesus in the Gospel that can serve this purpose. In fact, Jesus by His example has taught us to pray spontaneous briefs: “I bless you Father, Lord of Heaven and earth for revealing these truths to mere children” (cf. Matt. 11: 25); “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23: 46).
The apostles and disciples’ words and those of simple peasants in the Gospel are also very useful briefs that we can repeat time and again: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1); “Master, show us the Father” (John 14:8); “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13); “Lord, it is good that we are here” (Matt. 17:4; cf. Mark 9: 5; Luke 9: 33).
We may also like to use words from the Psalms or the book of Wisdom: “Lord, in my inmost being teach me wisdom” (cf. Ps. 51: 8); or words of saints throughout time: “Late have I loved you!” (St. Augustine of Hippo) or simply words that come to us when we pray or read or work, which we
somehow retain and thus repeat regularly to keep united to God.
Prayer Briefs is a collection of brief prayers to help us solidify our relationship with God.
These prayers may be useful in many instances; for example,
—when our prayer is dry and lifeless;
—when it seems we do not have time to pray;
—during a retreat or vigil;
—while we do our work;
—while we walk down a corridor;
—while waiting or on a journey;
—as aids to talk to Jesus after receiving Holy Communion;
—in between activities or events of each day;
—while we are enjoying life and God’s blessings; and
—while we battle overpowering feelings such as pain, fear, anxiety, anger, hate, envy, resentment, lust, excitement.
It may be helpful to peep into a particular section of this website every now and then just to pick up an aspiration to help us relate with God. There are so many different ones that something is bound to be helpful.
If we know who we are and who we really ought to be, we would be constantly petitioning for grace and help, without fear of asking too much.
These simple prayers help us to use our time well. A single sentence could be a focus for some five‑ten minutes meditation. A single sentence could also be something we stick to our mind to carry around for a whole day.
It is better to avoid reading continually without pausing or reflecting as that is not the purpose of this website. Ideally, spending a few minutes to pray with each prayer brief can help us keep our meditation or mental prayer going. The aim is to provide words to inspire prayer when it is difficult or when we experience dryness and not to supply reading material.
Most quotes are from the New American Bible, used with permission.