Prayer: Our Relationship with God

Prayer is not just a formal activity that occurs  at a designated time and place; it is every way we communicate and share ourselves with God. Through prayer in its many forms our intimacy with God deepens. This retreat is intended to foster this intimacy by experiencing many approaches to prayer and considering how this desired intimacy with God can become more of an ongoing part of one's daily life.

Students of scripture and prayer practices have come up with different categories of prayer. Richard Foster, in his book on prayer, for example, describes 21 different forms of prayer that vary in form, setting and intent.

Some prayer is beyond words; prayer without audible words that takes many forms and fits into different parts of our life. When described as a specific form of prayer, common descriptive terms used today for such prayer include interior prayer, prayer of the heart, centering prayer, unceasing prayer, contemplative prayer or simply silent prayer. Participants in the retreat will be given an opportunity to experience such forms of prayer, generally as an individual, but also with a chance to discuss their experience later with others.

Upon examining descriptions of prayer in the Bible, we see that prayer can be experienced as part of all of life. The goal of this retreat is to experience many forms of prayer and begin a process of making it an ongoing and all-encompassing part of our lives