In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, amen. My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My immaculate mother, St. Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, and deceit for me.

Lord, as we contemplate your presence with us, savoring that prayer of St. Thomas the Apostle,

my Lord and my God, we use another prayer of petition of the apostles who contemplated

you lost in deep prayer to your Father God.

And we join them and address the same words to you.

Lord, teach me to pray.

Teach us to pray.

And Jesus responds by saying, when you pray, say,

Father, what does this mean?

Well, it means what it means,

but it also means contemplate how much God loves you.

When you, any time you start to pray, implicitly and explicitly reflect on God's infinite

love for you, translated in human form through his incarnate divine son, Jesus Christ.

Our topic for this time of prayer is mental prayer.

There's varying terminologies for that phrase mental prayer.

One phrase which is more classical and traditional is lexio divina,

literally meaning divine reading in the early church,

contemplation of the word of God, especially the gospel,

was called lexio Divina.

Or quiet time with our Lord or meditation, contemplation, even though there are precise technical

meanings, but for our intense and purposes, we want to contemplate the need

...