Teach Us to Pray

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for our first of two bonus episodes, as Luke Heisler and Sylvia Swords talk about discernment, prophesy, and prophetic living (whatever that means). They try to recapture the beauty of Scripture as wisdom rather than empty words, and they discuss what it means to hear God in your life. As the podcast begins to wrap up, Sylvia and Luke recap the series a bit, walking through all that has been learned, redefined, and discovered for the first time in this process. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for our second of two bonus episodes, as Luke Heisler and Anna Whitaker talk about the necessity of imagination for prayerful living. They dig into their experience with prayer, outline a bit of what being a 21st Century mystic looks like, discuss the prayer of Creation itself, and look at some alternative methods of praying. In the final episode (for now) of Teach Us to Pray, Anna and Luke get at what prayer does, what it means, what it enacts, and what it brings about. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends! Thank you to to all of the people who generously contributed to these conversations—whether friends who helped to organize thoughts off the podcast; the beautiful praying minds and lives of individuals like Dr. Martin Laird, Fr. Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Brother Lawrence, St. Augustine, and many more; and the brilliant guests who lent their voices and ideas to this project. Many thanks to you, the listener, the learner, the pray-er, for joining me in trying to rediscover what it actually means to live prayerfully. Go and pray.

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for our final episode, as Luke Heisler and Ryan Donnel take a look at The Lord’s Prayer and the assurance we have that God Himself is praying for us. God is not a distant being in the clouds; He is close, working in the soil of our lives, teaching us and showing us how to pray, even praying for us and with us. In this episode, Ryan and Luke talk about the Lord’s Prayer as a template for a life of prayer, not a list of religious lines to blandly recite. The "Our Father" is a prayer that unites Christians through time and space to the entire church, even to Jesus himself. They also get into a bit of the Trinitarian nature of prayer, and they touch on the fact that even the Creator of the Universe prays for us. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for our eighth episode, as Luke Heisler and Dr. Chuck Fuller talk about grief and lament. We don’t often think twice about bringing our prayers of petition or thanksgiving to God, but when it comes to lament we can get shy. In this episode, Chuck and Luke enter St. John of the Cross's "Dark Night of the Soul" and get vulnerable and honest about bringing the whole of the self to God, not just the neat and tidy parts. They discuss how God, in His compassionate kindness, grieves with us and hears us when we cry out to Him in the midst of our suffering, and how, by accessing God and His compassion in us, we can grieve well with others and cry out on their behalf. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for the seventh episode of the podcast, as Luke Heisler and Dr. Ryan Butler talk about intercession and petition. God is so much more than a “cosmic vending machine,” but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ever bring our needs before Him. In this episode, Ryan and Luke discuss the history of Jewish and Christian prayer, flesh out the distinction between intercession and petition, and look at instances of intercession and petition in Scripture. They end with a charge for Christians interceding and petitioning around the world: act as ambassadors of God, not only praying against injustice and for needs in their communities, but working to bring His Kingdom to earth in partnership with Jesus. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for part two of the sixth episode of the podcast, as Luke Heisler and Kait Copeland continue to dive into the depths of the contemplative tradition. There is so much richness in slowing down and retreating into the deepest part of oneself to sit in loving, attentive silence with the Father. In this episode, Kait and Luke talk about allowing ourselves to be loved by God, the benefit of calming and quieting our souls, and how we can pray always, even until we become prayer itself. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for the first part of the sixth episode of the podcast, as Luke Heisler and Kait Copeland dive into the depths of the contemplative tradition. There is so much richness in slowing down and retreating into the deepest part of oneself to sit in loving, attentive silence with the Father. In this episode, Kait and Luke talk about allowing ourselves to be loved by God, the benefit of calming and quieting our souls, and how we can pray always, even until we become prayer itself. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for our fifth episode, as Luke Heisler and Lee McDerment talk about meditating on and praying Scripture. There is a subtle yet important difference between reading our Bibles and consuming the Word of God. In this episode, Lee and Luke scratch the surface of that distinction and talk about what the Bible is and what it’s doing, how we can be participants in the Word of God, and what it means to set God’s wisdom in our hearts. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for the fourth episode, as Luke Heisler and Rev. Chase Edgar explore fixed-hour prayer and the physicality of prayer. We are physical beings who are tied to time and space, but, contrary to our first instinct, that isn’t always a bad thing. In this episode, Luke and Chase talk about strategically saturating our days with prayer, and using our bodies, physical reminders, and the very spaces we inhabit as touch points to the divine. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!

Welcome to Teach Us to Pray, an exploration through Christian prayer for those who want to always be learning and re-learning how to pray.  Join us for our third episode, as Luke Heisler and Jim Thompson sit down to talk about praise and worship. Oftentimes, we neglect to think of singing songs as a form of prayer. Jim and Luke talk about the significance of place, what happens to the singer when they sing, and God's own tendency to communicate to us in song. They also discuss the importance of singing as a unifying act — on a “Y axis” that unifies us with God, an “X axis” that unifies us with the catholic (as in entire) Church today, and a “Z axis” that unifies us through time with the historic catholic Church. Jim wrote a profound but short book called “Sing Loud, Die Happy" that dives a bit deeper into a lot of what was talked about in this episode. If you’re interested in getting into more of Jim’s thoughts on song as prayer (which you should be), click here to buy it. If you enjoyed this conversation, go ahead and leave a review and share it with your friends!