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Yeah, check out the video first just watch that if you have a Couple of minutes that you want to be inspired and you want to get your blood pumping and Understand that the true battle that we're in against the forces of darkness. It's a beautiful video The voiceover is our son Jordan our producer and so anyway check it out and then Check out some of the features in it and see if you want to be part of this awesome thing Join thousands that are helping to further the mission drive back the darkness and fight this battle. Awesome Last thing and we'll get the show started so well actually let's just leave it at that I'll tell you more and then are we gonna do some Personal like live Q&A at the end of the show. Okay, so for those who are on Facebook At Or YouTube or YouTube when you're done when the show is formally over we go back into this mode If you will we'll answer some live questions for you. So make sure you hang out for a few minutes We'll take care of you that way So Avila dash army dot org and you ready to get rolling and your mark gets set go This is Dan. It's Stephanie Burke welcome. I need to do that over. Okay, so I don't know who Bethany is Okay, I thought I can't I thought I you know, I Fixed it, but okay ready mark. It's like go this is Dan and Stephanie Burke Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest your hermitage of the heart your monastery of the mind Where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven To draw upon the heavenly wisdom provided to us through the saints through the mystics of the church Through the magisterium. We're grateful to be on EWTN radio all around the world and the United States EWTN is awesome and We're happy to do that and we're happy to answer your questions again today. So we're just going to jump right in to Questions and answers on mental prayer on mental prayer. All right. What do we got? Mr. Producer you want to read that one? What does your morning prayer look like what does a conversation with God look and sound like So what is your morning prayer look like Dan Burke? I say hey, and he sounds like you know, he says sounds like Kermit the Frog when he responds back No, that's not right. No, and this is gonna be a rough day if this is how you're starting out No, so but the question Producers asleep over there. I don't know what he's doing. No, can you put the question back on the screen? So Okay, more seriously. What does your morning with prayer look like so morning prayer starts incredibly early this morning was like 415 I think and It begins with Two prayers one and they have each have a purpose and I think we both do the same thing here I think I think I think one of them is the morning offering. It's traditional. It says oh my Jesus to the maggot heart of Mary I offer all my prayers works joys Sufferings of this day and so that that's one and then a scapular consecration prayer and then from there I usually move into just mental prayer which is You know can you can begin with oh God come to my assistance Lord make use to help me Whatever right now. We're recording this during lint So as I begin mental prayer, I'm reading very prayerfully the reflections on the passion And then I just spend time with the Lord doing that so In terms of what does a conversation with God look like or sound like? It's more about a worship in the way that my prayer goes So when I'm reading and if something strikes me or Meditating on the Lord and something strikes me I might express my love my appreciation my sorrow in particular with the passion and But it's a lot of it's sitting in quiet with him and just recognizing his presence and So no frog voices none of that it's so anyway, you want to give give it a shot and describe yours sure Again, we we start early and that's that's a personal choice. We also go to bed early and we also don't have Televisions so in our home. We don't stay up late at night watching the news or anything like that So we go to bed early. We get up early so that we can pray when the world is still and when our minds and our bodies are still I Usually grab a cup of coffee. I go to my sacred space. I have a place that's meant only for prayer and I have a beautiful crucifix there an icon that we got In Rome at the top of the Vatican when on our honeymoon actually And so I go to prayer and I use holy water I like my candles because those help to draw my heart and my mind to the Lord they they it's a Ritual as it is a religious kind of gathering of my senses and So I invoke the Holy Spirit first I have a devotion to Luisa Piccadetta. Yeah, so I have a devotion to her and so I start that prayer with I Am nothing God is all Father, I love you and I begin there and say that prayer I also Invoke what I call my pocket saints and those are my devotions and so I ask those Saints to gather with me to help me to pray to set my heart and my mind on the one for whom I love and whom I the one For whom I long and whom I live and breathe and have my being and so They assist me in prayer as well So then I go into my mental prayer time when it's not When it's ordinary time that will be sitting with the Lord worshipping him receiving him Orienting all of my being towards him remaining receptive and open and Listening yeah, and then if and like like you during Lent right now. I am meditating on The visions of Bridgett, yeah, so that was I I prayed over that the agony this morning It was very difficult to read very painful and I asked the Lord to reveal to me the depths of his agony in that and It was very moving and he did so it's interesting. Can I make a comment there that relates to the question? How does the Lord speak to you what he did in response was he gave you in Essence this is him communicating back to you. He gave you the gift of entering into His suffering so he spoke to you by showing you in a sense, right his suffering at a deep level Right at my heart ate. Yeah, I agonized For his suffering not as if I were him. It was more as if I were observing Perhaps from the stance of Mary. Yeah, you know this deep compassion deep love wanting to ease his suffering Wanting to draw near so I could could you know Wipe the blood away from his eyes, you know those kind of things where I wanted to draw near to his suffering So yeah, it was it was that's how that's sometimes how we hear his voice. He allows us to feel different emotions to enter deeply into the scene and That happens in him in many ways. Yeah, very good. He uses our senses. That's right. Yeah, that's right Next question Okay, how do I know if I'm praying long enough or if I'm devoting too much time to prayer and should keep it to a certain time limit? Well, yeah, we won't do that last part So how do I know if I'm praying long enough, you know, if you're praying long enough if you fall asleep Is that right? No, that's not right either. No, that's not right. This is the second one. I got wrong Are we gonna have to put you in timeout today? I maybe I don't know Okay, how do we know if we are praying long enough or too long? Yeah, I mean matter I think oh good. It all depends on your state of life. That's right. That's where I was going when I Worked outside of the home. I was a Catholic school principal for quite a number of years a teacher before that You know, I knew I had to get up and get moving at a certain time or I was going to be late And I couldn't unlock the door and my students weren't weren't going to be able to get in So I had to set my time. I put a timer on I'm I'm not promoting Any kind of particular product or technical thing But I do like the watches that you can set a timer on it and it buzzes on your wrist so it's not loud and Obtrusive to your prayer because you can set it close your eyes go to prayer and then your your wrist watch Starts to buzz and then you know your time's over and then you can close your prayer and Finish up any prayers that you have before you get ready for the day So that's one indicator of how much time you should spend in prayer It depends on how long you've been praying if you're a beginner, you know, I don't I don't Expect beginners to do more than probably 15 minutes Yeah So all of heaven rejoices when beginners start with 15 minutes or five minutes or five minutes For those who have been praying a long time Maybe they and maybe they're retired or their state of life is such that they can Devote more time in prayer. Maybe they can have two hours That's a beautiful gift, right? But it it just depends state in life and then also how long you've been doing it your own disciplines and What the Lord allows because in the end prayer is Not necessarily something we do it is something that's given. It's a gift the desires put on our heart he also gives us the grace to do it and It's often that I will Perhaps go to prayer. Maybe if I don't have to worry about the time if it's a Saturday morning or something and we don't have our community meeting that I can go to prayer and Just simply rest in it and be with the Lord and he will bring me out when he's done And then I emerge from that prayer. I do our deliverance prayers that we pray We do axillium Christianorum as a community. We're committed to that daily And so I do those prayers and end my day with an offering and rise and Take those graces with me into my day. Awesome. Now, can you post that one more time just to make sure we cut the whole question? Maybe Okay, I don't know if I'm praying long enough too much time to prayer or keep it a certain time. Yeah I mean, I do you think you covered it pretty well. I think so. All right. What's the next question? Sometimes I just want to sit and think quietly about Jesus and how much he has done for me and how much he loves me Is this okay to just talk to him on my own without reading any scripture first? What do you think? I think it's awesome. You know That's a very good sign that you just want to do that and in fact, that's more important than anything really I mean if you especially if you spent some time in the past maybe a year or so Getting to know him and scripture and in daily meditation that sort of thing But this is this is in essence the result of growing deeper in love with Jesus and it's it's a very perfect powerful good Place to be and it's yeah, I mean, it's really fantastic. Yeah, we really shouldn't over complicate Our relationship with the Lord. Yeah, you know in its essence it's love Yeah, and if we sit in love Giving love and receiving love. That's beautiful. Hey, just real quick before we go to the break folks if you want to join us and get exclusive content and More content more formation spiritual formation. You can ever imagine exists even while simultaneously Helping helping our mission to Avila dash army.org a as an Apple V as in Victor I la as an Apple a Avila like a Teresa of Avila dash Army org Avila dash army org go out and check that out and I think you'll be very very blessed and Oh, it's even on the screen for those who are listening on Facebook or watching us or YouTube be on the side of the angels On the side of the angels. We'll see you out at Avila army and we'll be right back from the break So we went exactly 12 30 when you want it. What do you want 13? Okay on your mark? It said Go this is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio You're a radio haven of rest and we're answering questions about prayer today You hang out if you're watching us live on YouTube or Facebook and you hang out to the end Just after we end our normal show we'll answer questions for you live questions So if you want to put them in the chat, yeah Then our producer man will gather those questions and we'll be able to answer some of those at the very end And if you want to participate in this go out to our YouTube page and subscribe and spiritual direction calm YouTube page and and we need you to participate We need you to subscribe and and follow on Facebook and make sure you comment on our YouTube page And share and all of those things because that's how we keep up Traffic that's way that way you will continue to see our content and it doesn't hide and go away It doesn't get shadow banned as it were so because of the changes in the algorithms with Some of those nefarious Companies out there that are controlling the the ebb and flow of information And I'm trying to say that as charitably as possible Um, we need you to subscribe to YouTube make sure you hit the little bell so that you'll get notified Personally every time we we post new content share and follow what's happening on Facebook make comments Because that helps to keep our Traffic up and that helps ensure that you don't miss any of what we have to share with you and even more important So those are important, but those you know those platforms obviously there's all kinds of issues with catholic content being suppressed suppressed so if you want to Get to a place where that can't happen. I mean without A lot more work. Uh go to spiritualdirection.com just our normal website And subscribe there and then you'll always You know nowhere to find us and how to find us and all that spiritualdirection.com Right and you can even select, you know, how often you get our newsletter has beautiful content in it a big shout out to Claire Dwyer who is our resident Author editor writer everything. She's wonderful. We just got to spend the day with her yesterday I'm doing some strategy work. So She helps manage that and she makes sure that it's beautiful that it's fresh. There's lots of Wonderful content that she is either gathering or that we are producing and she makes sure that goes out. So All right producer man. What's the next question? I've been asked several times is prayer supposed to be two-way. What if I feel like I'm doing all the talking Should I feel his presence? so the The challenge with how we look at prayer is when we come in with expectations The purpose of prayer Above all is to get to know Jesus. So if you're just beginning prayer Um, and it's the best place to begin and and you stay it tend to stay there for a long time You go you go to the gospels you get to know the person and work of jesus So you do that through reading the gospels praying talking to the lord about what you see How does he respond? He responds back by giving us Wisdom insight. I mean he's not he he we do have a personal relationship And we do need to understand god as a person But it's it's not the same as me sitting down with stephanie and having a conversation with stephanie Some people do experience him in in a very real Tangible way. I mean it just depends the lord will communicate us communicate to us individually as As there is as many people are on the face of the earth each person receives The lord and communicates with him in a little different way What we do in prayer is we respond to that desire to pray We go forth to pray to receive him to worship him and to be and to allow him to love us And so if we're sitting there talking to him and telling him all the things that we want and need and and there's no Opportunity for him to get a word in edgewise then you're probably talking too much There needs to be a time of resting in him Just the same if you think about a beautiful moment Between a husband and wife where there's this covenant embrace And there's stillness and there's quiet Maybe it's forehead to forehead or or nose to nose, you know in a stance of of adoration We need to allow a little bit of space in there and rest in him So we won't always fill that time with our own words But there should be exaltations of worship Of joy of thanksgiving of of times of petition Times of sorrow where we lay our sorrow at his feet. So it's going to ebb and flow Yeah, and just to avoid confusion on this because there's so much We teach in our community mental prayer time is a time of you getting to know and worship god not a time of petition So generally speaking we're in the gospels or we teach people to do that Until they come to a point like the previous question we had where is it okay? Just to sit and be with jesus, you know, which is awesome, but it's to get you to that point So in that context you are trying to get to know him you are worshiping him as deaf and he said You are honoring him and loving him We tend to put our petitions Into our rosary And it isn't good Also to be just constantly gabbing Whether even if it's not petition You should be reading and reflecting and it it should be a gentle Deep immersion in the person and work of christ in the gospels right and and Gabbing usually is Related to give me this give me that give me a better health. Give me a better job. Give me more money Give me whatever or make being holy over again, which is a good petition, but but it's also this need to this dis ease which Permits all of our culture with silence. Yeah, the lord is silence He's love and we sometimes don't know how to rest in that silence And we need to rest in it as we go to the scripture and read about his passion his agony this week Um, you know, we're recording this during during lint during holy week. So as we go to that Sitting with it Looking at it with the eyes of our soul the eyes of our imagination Observing it as if you are if you see an extraordinary painting in a museum and you sit with it And enter into that painting. It's similar to something like that. So We shouldn't be Constantly talking but also listening and reflecting Um, the the final part of that question is What if I don't feel his presence should I feel him right? Yeah, you know, go ahead I was I'm with you Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't and sometimes you and I hang out with each other And we have really deep powerful emotions towards one another and sometimes you and I hang out And there's no emotion toward each other. We're just silent together committed to one another right in love Yeah, it's there's no downside to that If you want to learn to pray the way we're talking about if this is appealing to you there's a free course That you mini course that you can get out on apostoleva.org a p o s t o l i v i a e dot org It's on the screen for those of you watching live screen live stream On youtube or facebook and uh go go there create a profile. It's all free And then there's a courses area once you do the intro piece Like a digital monastery the whole site. So there's a kind of a orientation that you Watch before you your your membership is approved, but it's all free Then you can go into the courses area and there's a bunch of free courses there once on mental prayer And another thing you can do is pick up my book And I know it's a ewtn religious catalog into the deep Finding peace through prayer and it's a very simple powerful easy way to know Learn how to pray or learn the kind of prayer that we're talking about at least at the beginning stages Okay, great. All right. What's our next question? How do you know if you are doing mental prayer? Right, so I I think the biggest thing is if you're praying and there's no buzzer like No, I thought it was if you were bilocating is that or levitating levitating. I think that might be now you're joking with me This is good. I'm sorry No, you shouldn't apologize. It's no. So how do you know if you're doing it, right? There is there is a measure for there's a couple ways to know. Yeah Yeah, what is it? Oh well one is love. Are you increasing in love? That's the most important way, right? One of the things that people get really sidetracked on with prayer is They're There, you know, you're just looking at it with purely human eyes or anthropocentric perspective And in the end Teresa Vavola in her book the interior castle, which is the most Um it's her opus. It's the most uh important book probably in the history of the church written on prayer It in it she talks about these various stages of prayer to the highest, you know From the simplest to the highest forms And she asks and answers this question And the answer to the question is are you growing in love? Not is it not it's not your mystical experience? It's not whether you hear a voice. It's not whether you feel this or that It's whether or not you are growing in love. So the fruit of it is so but I know you've probably got more Well, yeah, and I was going to say also if you're growing in any of the virtues Any of the virtues, you know, if you can look that's why the examine is so part and parcel important to to um Add to your mental prayer daily that you should be doing an examine daily Because this helps us grow in self-knowledge, which we need to grow in until our last breath Yeah, um that's helps us orient our lives towards him It helps us as a checking point to say am I heading the wrong direction or the right direction So are we growing in virtue? Are we getting better? And one of the ways that you and I do that is that during our examine at the end of the evening You know, I will turn to you and say have I served you well today You know and you do the same for me. And so we know that if that answer becomes More and more common. Yes. Thank you. It was a beautiful day. Yes. Thank you I was so grateful when you came and and brought me lunch or when you consoled me when I was suffering or whatever it is Or you didn't argue when you didn't like what my answer was whatever it was You know those things tell us are we growing in love towards one another and then towards god as well? Are we more sacrificial? Are we more self-giving? Because the lord is uh our example par excellence. He is perfect Selflessness and that is what we are called to emulate. We may have time for one more quick one. You have a quick one Uh, yeah, what should you do when you feel dryness and distractions in prayer? I would just give up That's kind of my advice not to lie. I'm sorry. No, you should keep going Yeah, you should keep going. Keep going. Do an examine. It is it is normal. Do an examine make sure that there's no undetected sin going on and if there isn't then assume that it's just a little bit of aridity Maybe transitional for you in your prayer. And so you continue to keep showing up. Do you have a desire to pray? That's a good sign. Keep showing up whether it's dry or whether it's Covered in lots of feelings and emotions and consolations. Yeah. Yeah, so real quick. She said check yourself for sin See if you're also slacking off, which would be sinful on your spiritual disciplines Make sure you're getting enough sleep and you're not sick. You know, there's some human side stuff and some sin or sloth or negligence things that can cause aridity then also you know, if if It's from God it's to draw you deeper in relationship to him. So it's a little more complicated. It's a simple question But a lot to it we can do more in another show, but we're out of time Okay, so until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord Jesus christ amen amen All right, so We have some questions for after the show after the show questions rich Does reading and reflecting on scripture sufficiently constitute listening to the lord or do we also need silence? I find it difficult to rest my mind without some direction deacon. That's a good great question and You do need some silence and what happens is over time As you practice mental prayer you'll get Silence will become more and more natural, but you don't force it. So as long as you say you need Material to direct your mind. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that And do that for as long as you need but also be sensitive to be sensitive to Movements to silence if you sense any of that so Make sure that As you're reading and I I speak about this and into the deep where we talk about It's lexio divina. We cover there. We talk about this contemplation of this movement of god That draws you more fully into his presence and we need to learn to rest in it And if you're too active in your prayer or you're you're trying to you know If you if you don't use the material with a light Grasp in a sense. Yeah, then you you'll you'll miss those movements But there's nothing wrong with the way you're praying if you need Material to receive avila needed a book for years Before she really had some major breakthroughs and the and the books that she read were all important and helpful to her growth There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, so you want to think of it in terms of Going to prayer as martha not mary I mean So go to prayer as mary not martha. So you're not there to go, you know Accomplish rather you're there to sit at his feet and listen So as dan says when he prompts you to silence rest in that. Yeah, okay What is the best way to observe good friday and stations of the cross at home this friday To enter into that agony on such an important day, especially I think you have a nice response to that. Well, what we're doing this friday this good friday is we're going to watch the passion of the christ and So the goal will be to spend the day in silence as much as possible and simplicity and to Watch the passion let that sink in devotionally not as a movie But as a way to really draw our hearts and minds to what the lord has done for us We might do some spiritual reading that day the stations of the cross potentially that day But if we do stations across that day, we would tend to do them in a very quiet devotional way Not with a lot of repetitive prayers just in reflecting on him And what he's done for us will probably do that even as a community. So Uh, those are a few ways that I would do it at home that can be very very powerful Yeah, and enter into deeper fasting that day where we're called To fasting and I'm stating from me don't on good friday anyway, but Even more so if there's a way for you to add extra Sacrifice in that way and certainly by keeping silence. I think To the extent that not uncharitable science where you're ignoring people but rather Committed silence in your day and just reflecting on what he's done right for us. Yeah, good question beautiful Last question Should you stop praying for something over and over if That god won't give you or she prayed for it as many times many times. So Jesus actually answered this question in scripture and he said that um Actually, what i'm gonna do i'm gonna combine a number of things that he said about prayer into one One he said He said if you're praying in gods will Pray over and over until the answer comes So he uses the analogy of a woman who comes before an unjust judge and she Constantly asks him for the for what she wants and wears him out until he gives it to her And he said act like her, you know, so constantly going to god. So if you know as an example We have family members that we love that are not with the lord And so it is god's will that they be with him And that they know him and love him and live in that reality And so we will never to the day we die until they come to him We will never stop praying for them for that because we know it's as will prayer and sacrifice We need you know, especially if it's something that's really burning on our hearts Like love for a loved one their their conversion They're good, you know, because that desires for For their good In a way that they would have freedom and peace and joy in the lord Then we also need to enter into sacrifice for them because the lord says Also in scripture, you know, this one will only be delivered through prayer and fasting So, you know, if you're praying and and it's not coming Fourth add fasting if you're praying fasting and you yourself are striving to be holy Um, if you're striving to conform your life fully with the lord then also ask Um, the lord what more that he's asking for you Is there something deeper that he's requiring of you or maybe Sometimes the answer to that prayer is that he's asking you to surrender to his will And surrender to whatever the answer is and he's changing you in the process of you asking as he teaches us to ask Right when we surrender, that's actually the greatest prayer is to surrender to the lord Thy will be done and not mine. So uh one last thing before we go and producer man can put the url up Apostly va If you you know a lot of people watch our show or listen and feel really close to us, you know Because radio is kind of just a very personal Medium and you like the formation. We're getting a lot of beautiful comments in the in the Facebook and in the youtube com comments area And you want more and you feel like you don't get enough We do free formation live Twice a month second and fourth Saturdays At apostoly va.org and this is our community website. It's a digital monastery. We have members in 44 countries So you won't be alone You'll be with people who like you are on fire for the lord and who loves the lord really beautiful people amazing people And it's all free. There's free courses on prayer and on discernment of spirits and You know, and then wonderful community. There's a prayer chapel there. There's uh all All the ways that you need to grow spiritually We really have available in all the things we do spiritual direction dot com avala institute um avala army, you know Apostoly va va.org apo for those listening audibly only apo st. Oh li Vi ae.org possibly va.org and that's our community site And it's a private site in the sense that you can talk freely about your faith and not have any fear Of anyone making fun of you or doing anything but supporting you or shutting you down or shutting you down It's really awesome amazing people So head out there and check it out and we'll look forward to seeing you on one of our saturday meetings Okay, god bless you. It's been awesome being with you this this time. Yep. Amen. Take care