Expand Your Prayer Life with the Learning to Pray Program
To the community of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church,
I hope all of you are getting through this cold snowy winter and the Covid crisis.
A little less than a year ago St. Paul’s offered a course in Learning to Pray. Almost 30 people signed up and participated in this exciting small group program.
The Learning to Pray 1 offering offers an opportunity to expand your prayer life so you might get to know God better and draw God’s presence deeper into your life. It seems so simple yet in my almost 20 years as a priest I can’t tell you the number of times people have come to me asking to learn how to pray. Most of us know how to approach God with our litany of needs, but most of us, myself included, have struggled with learning to listen for God and how to deepen our relationship with God. The purpose of prayer is to have a dialogue with God so God can get to know you and you can get to know God. In short, it is through prayer that we draw closer to God with an intimate knowledge of who God is and God’s care for each of us.
Based on this very basic human desire to know God, a nine week course was developed that provides a framework to guide each of us into a deeper more meaningful relationship with God.
The Learning to Pray course will begin Saturday April 17th and will run until June 12th. It is built around small groups of 5-6 people per group, each with its own trained leader to guide you. The initial two meetings will be all of us together then we will break up for 6 weeks of experiential learning, followed by a closing meeting with all of us together again. The small groups will meet for 1 hour per week at a time agreed to by the group.
It is hoped that the integrity and strength of each group will grow with your attendance at each meeting but this is not a requirement. We will meet via Zoom so we can continue to practice safe distancing while we build new interpersonal relationships.
If you are interested in this exciting new program, please complete this form.
If you have any questions, you can reach me at [email protected] or at (717) 360-7662.
Blessings,
Ted Babcock
Watch the interviews below to learn about Learning to Pray and parishioners who have participated.
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