Personal Prayer & Devotions

We encourage all a parishioners to expore and discover the best way to build a life of personal prayer.  Personal prayer is the prayer of an individual. It wells up from the depths of the heart of the person. It is different than liturgical or community prayer  in that it is personal and peculiar to that person, but it is indeed inspired from these other prayer forms.  Personal prayer can be in words. But it can also take the form of "inexpressible groanings" (cf. Rom 8:26), as the Holy Spirit may guide each soul.  Personal prayer is important in the promotion of our living relationship as children of God with our Father who is goodness itself, with Jesus Christ his Son and our Redeemer, and with the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier. A life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of  God and in communion with him (cf. CCC, n. 2565).  Personal prayer helps to make our religion more genuine, more personal, more deeply rooted.  It comes to our aid in the little pinpricks of daily life as well as in temptations and trials which can never be totally excluded during our earthly pilgrimage. [ Source]

As Catholics, we have many rich prayer devotions and spiritualities that the Holy Spirit uses to help us connect to more closely to God.   St. Gabriel has several groups dedicated to nurturing various prayer devotions.