Carol and John live in New Orleans, Louisiana. They have five adult children and eleven grandchildren. John is a tax lawyer, and Carol is a certified Spiritual Director. They are also recipients of the Order of St. Louis award from the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
LORD TEACH ME TO PRAY – The Real Story
(Structure of the series and History)
“Lord, Teach Me To Pray” (LTMTP) is a three-part Ignatian prayer series. The three parts are taken in succession. Each part is a prerequisite for the next part.
Part 1, Praying Christian Virtues (12 weeks) introduces the pray-ers (i.e., participants) to Ignatian prayer and spirituality in the way that St. Ignatius himself introduced people; i.e., by structuring their initial prayer experience around the Christian Virtues.
Part 2, My 19th Annotation (27 weeks), consists of the entirety of the well-known “Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius”. The title of this part of the series refers to the 19th note that St. Ignatius wrote in his notebook. In this note he instructs that the Spiritual Exercises should be adapted to accommodate those in the world desiring to make the Spiritual Exercises yet who cannot leave their family and livelihood for an extended period of time.
Part 3, Discernment and Gifts of the Spirit (14 weeks), provides the pray-ers with a general theological catechesis of the Holy Spirit with emphasis on the sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit, followed by an introduction to St. Ignatius’ Rules for Discernment of Spirits.
The “Lord, Teach Me To Pray” series began on September 11, 2001. For the first eight years, the LTMTP series was available for women only. In January 2010 the series was adapted and began to be offered for men. Women facilitators facilitate groups for women; men facilitators facilitate groups for men.
The mechanics of the series is quite simple. Participants meet once per week for up to two hours in a small group led by trained facilitators. Each of the sessions is well structured in terms of both time and materials. Throughout the week, participants are asked to spend time each day praying with the Scriptures provided in the session. During each session there is a time specified for faith sharing. The facilitators of the series are not teachers or spiritual directors; rather, they themselves are “pray-ers” who, no matter how many times they facilitate the series, pray the assigned material throughout the week just as the other participants do. The facilitators are trained from the Lord Teach Me To Pray website on how to use the LTMTP manual for the different parts. The primary responsibility of the facilitator is to allow for the space within the group that the Holy Spirit needs to direct each person’s journey. As the facilitators safeguard this space, the prayer itself opens the heart of each participant to a deep and wonderful relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who will, as the title of the series clearly suggests, lovingly and gently do the “teaching”.
The Lord, Teach Me To Pray series was submitted to the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) Publishing Office for approval and to receive the copyright permissions needed to publish excerpts from the New American Bible (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The approval process included a complete review of the LTMTP text by the Subcommittee on the Catechism to assure its consistency with the Catechism. At the successful conclusion of that review, LTMTP was granted copyright and publishing permissions.
HISTORY OF LORD TEACH ME TO PRAY
Lord Teach Me To Pray began in our home in New Orleans on the morning of September 11, 2001. Years prior we had moved to New Orleans. My husband had just become a partner in a law firm when he was diagnosed with 4th stage Non Hodgkin lymphoma. I was living LIFE FOR ME ME ME. That day was my moment of LIGHT AND DECISION. On my knees I cried out to God. I was seeing that my life was all about what I wanted. On my knees I threw up my hands in surrender and worship of God. I was sick of my selfish self and promised God that never again would I try to run my life. I promised to follow God day by day. I needed God more than I needed food or water. I had to keep going. My husband started treatments, kept working and our oldest started school. I was at Mass every day with our youngest.
One day I received an invitation to a Cenacle Home Retreat to be given in the neighborhood. I ran to the first meeting. I was desperate for God. The Sister turned me away because I was going to have to miss a meeting. It was an Ignatian retreat and no one could miss a meeting. I was pregnant and would soon deliver our child. I was in shock and asked Sister to reconsider. Sister did this for me and I entered into the Home Retreat. My life was forever changed. I encountered the LIVING GOD!!! JESUS IS ALIVE AND HE LOVES US. HE LOVES US MORE THAN WE CAN IMAGINE. I was walking and talking with the living God every day throughout the years of my husband’s 20 recurrences. Eventually I was able to make the Spiritual Exercises with a Cenacle Sister. The Superior of the Cenacle Sisters invited us to go through 2 years of formation and become Cenacle Affiliates. Because we then had 5 children my husband suggested he stay home on Saturdays so I could go through the Cenacle Affiliate formation. At one Affiliate meeting we were to listen to a recording by a French- speaking women praying the Prayer of Surrender written by their foundress St. Therese Couderc. Each went off into private prayer time. I found a quiet place in the Sister’s side Chapel. As I sat down I turned to look at the altar when suddenly St. Therese Couderc, Foundress of the Sisters of the Cenacle in 1828, was standing at my side. St. Therese began speaking to me. She told me how she had been praying for me from the first day of the Home Retreat. She told me that God had chosen me to bring His Church Home. I was overwhelmed with emotion. After sharing this with my husband he told me later that God had told him I was to begin. I had become a Spiritual Director and knew how to put together the works of St. Ignatius. I hesitated to start until the day my husband came to me again and said God wanted me to start. He told me to pick a date, make a flyer and he would hand it out. I chose September 11, 2001 at 9:30 am and also 7 pm. The series was originally called “Intimacy with God” and a few years later I would change that name to Lord Teach Me To Pray to make it easier for everyone to understand the purpose of the series.
God gave a layman by the name of Inigo DeLopez a profound experience of conversion in prayer which Inigo wrote down in a little black book he always carried. This man today is known at St. Ignatius Loyola and his little black book is called the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Now the laity have access to this powerful prayer of conversion for FREE through Lord Teach Me To Pray. Saint JPII called for a NEW EVANGELIZATION. Ignatian prayer opens us to personally knowing and passionately loving the LIVING GOD CHRIST JESUS. To order go to lordteachmetopray.com and click on the red box to order. Lord Teach Me To Pray uses 30 second radio spots on 4 major Catholic Radio Networks to advertise the series. Lord Teach Me To Pray invites the laity to order the FREE Lord Teach Me To Pray series and to facilitate small groups in their parish, school, office, rehab center, cancer center, home. IT IS THE NEW SPRINGTIME!
Carol Weiler, Director
carolweiler@cox.net
lordteachmetopray.com
