Notes for praying in the Catholic Christian school context What is prayer?‘talking to God’‘raising the mind and heart (i.e. the whole person turns to God, focuses on God)‘prayer is a relationship between ourselves and God ‘‘prayer involves both our work and God’s work’What is Catholic Christian prayer?acknowledges God as the source and inspiration of prayerrequires openness to a relationship with Godinvolves awareness of God in daily lifedevelops through faith and life experienceis at the heart of the Catholic Christian traditionis centred on Jesus Christis essential to Catholic Christian spiritualityfinds expression in many formsis learnt and developed through practiceengages the whole personrequires effort and perseveranceis a response to a God of loveWhat is the role of prayer in a Catholic Christian school?is a key element of school lifeoccurs frequently and at appropriate times is timetabled but not restricted to timetablecan arise spontaneously and responsively extends beyond students and teachers to the wider school community How do we review prayer in a Catholic Christian school?What is the school prayer policy? Is the policy known and implemented? Is the policy adequate in terms of focus, context, variety and reach?How adequate is classroom prayer in relation to range of traditional prayers, quality of formal and informal prayer experiences, resourcing and skilling of teachers and students, atmosphere and sacred space, variety of types of prayer experiences How do we plan classroom prayer?relevance to age, stage and background of studentsvariety of ways to pray to take advantage of personality, strengths and preferencesadvantageous time and sufficient timechoosing and using space within and beyond classroomusing scripture for prayer in a variety of waysintegrating prayer and lifeproviding appropriate environment and atmosphereusing creativityteaching about prayerteaching and practising skills for prayer How do we pray in a diversity of ways?Vocal prayer, meditation, contemplative prayer as main expressions of prayer (CCC)A categorisation of forms of Catholic Christian prayer could be: traditional prayers (e.g. Our father, Hail Mary, Nicene Creed)formal and informal prayers ( praise, thanksgiving, petition, sorrow)meditation ( imagery, story, scripture, nature, art)contemplative prayer ( silence, mantras, breathing)other methods of prayer ( movement, journal writing, music)What are the challenges of traditional prayer?staff and student background often means low knowledge basethis can be put in the ‘too hard basket’putting students and teachers in contact with the tradition is however importanttraditional prayer formulas are important for communal prayer and worshipthere is great richness to be unpacked in many traditional prayerschallenge of ‘teaching about’ and ‘teaching to pray’ traditional prayersusing four resources model ‘code breaker’; ‘meaning maker’; ‘text user’; ‘text analyst’ memorising traditional prayersexpressing traditional prayers and devotions in contemporary waysteaching and using traditional prayers in a balanced prayer programusing traditional prayers with both staff and studentsconnecting with the extended familyContext/background BooksA resource for classroom teachers that integrates the theory of the nature of prayer with the practice of how to teach about prayer in the Catholic tradition.A NEW publication from The Liturgical Commission! Every Catholic school classroom needs this book for daily prayer. Week by week during the year, a simple form of liturgical prayer is provided, taking account of the liturgical seasons and saints' days. Introductory material will help teachers understand liturgical prayer and introduce it to their class.