SONG AND PRAISE. It is good to teach the group about this topic often, since it is central to the Charismatic renewal. The very essence of the renewal is to enter into deep worship of God, to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. How we worship is not so critical as that we worship. It is not natural for people to vocally praise God. If we are not praising God in our personal prayer life, we will probably not do it very well at the prayer meeting. It is tempting for most of us to believe God is calling us to spend our personal prayer time in quiet. But there is a tendency to get caught up in our own agenda if we have not focused on God. But when we enter into praise, something changes in our inner spirit. All of the other stuff we are filled with is cleared out and we open up and are really able to hear God. Now the Holy Spirit is able to speak and act in a way that really changes us.
On our own emotions, we are able to praise God for about three minutes. We need to develop a conviction about worshiping God that will propel us beyond this. We need to develop a vocabulary of praise. We need to be able to stay with the praise until we come into the very presence of God. The Miracle Hour by Linda Schubert is really good for developing praise in our personal prayer time.
DO REGULAR TEACHINGS. A teaching series on praise from the Scriptures or from praises in the Mass helps Catholics to see that praise is already part of their heritage. The praise psalms (e.g. Psalms 95-104, 113-118, 135-136, 145-150 to name a few) are an inspired source of exalted praise. We can use them to joyfully recall what God has done for us personally and for His whole people in salvation history. It can be helpful to go through the Most Holy Trinity, thanking each Divine Person in turn: �Father, I praise you for your personal love for me, for my identity as a child of God because You are my Father, for sending Your Son; Jesus Christ, You are my Lord and Savior. You have given Your life on the cross for me. Thank You for being my Brother and Companion. Thank You for my identity as Your disciple and that I can live with You. Holy Spirit, You are the fountain of new life welling up within me. You have made me a temple of the Holy Spirit.�
PRAISE IS EVANGELIZING YOURSELF and giving praise, worship, love, and honor to God. Because praise can be foreign to many people, it is useful to start with something they are already familiar with. For Catholics, we can unveil the tremendous praise contained in the Gloria: �Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, Almighty God and Father. We worship You, we give You thanks, we praise You for Your glory! Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; You are seated at the right hand of the Father, receive our prayer. For You alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, YOU ALONE ARE THE MOST HIGH, JESUS CHRIST, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father!� The Gloria is a tremendous teaching on praise. Quote it! Let it sink in! Do the same with the Holy! Holy! Holy!, with the acclamation before the Great Amen, with the Lord�s prayer.
A HEART FOR PRAISE. In addition to teaching our people to grow in a language of praise, perhaps by teaching them phrases such as �Jesus, I trust in You,� or �My Lord, and My God,� we need to teach them to be open to the Holy Spirit Who gives us a heart for praise. It is the Holy Spirit that makes praise come alive for us.
IN YOUR DAILY PRAYER TIME spend at least 10 minutes in song and worship and praise. This will focus you on God. Then, when you go to quiet, it will be an anointed quiet. You will be open to what the Lord is saying and doing. We need to help people to understand that this is why we worship. When we go to quiet prayer too quickly, we are filled with our own thoughts and concerns, worries and cares. Praise and worship helps us to be open to what God is saying. It moves the center of our attention to God and opens our hearts to Him.
LISTEN. After opening our heart to God, we should spend some time listening to God. To help treasure what God is saying to us, some people may want to keep a prayer journal. Some may just occasionally jot down inspirations or note how God is working in their lives, while others may produce a whole written dialogue every time they pray. This depends on the person. We should do whatever is helpful to genuine prayer.
LIVE IN THE PRESENT. We need to develop recollection, that is, living in the present. God doesn�t speak in the past or the future, but in the present. This is often hard for us, since we may be worried about the future or upset about the past! Worship helps us put this aside so we can hear God speak in the present. We need to keep developing that sense of God in the present.
SILENCE. We need to help our prayer groups be OK with silence. Generally it is good to begin the prayer meeting with everyone standing. This gives us the idea that we are standing before the Lord! (Of course this depends on the age, etc., of our prayer group members�we don�t want to keep them standing forever.) But after a time of good praise, the leader may invite the group to quiet. For example, the leader may say something like, �The Lord has said a number of words to us; let�s take an extended time for quiet to let them sink in.� The leader needs to give permission to the people for this so they aren�t uncomfortable with the silence. Otherwise they could be wondering, �Are we supposed to be silent or not be silent?� Other times the quiet flows quite naturally and no one needs to announce it, but there are times when it helps to say, �The Lord is calling for us to be quiet now.� We also need to help people know how the Lord works in that quiet.
WORSHIP OPENS US TO THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS. We need regular teaching on worship in the context of a charismatic prayer meeting. The book by Ron Ryan, Prayer Group Leadership Development, is good for this.