Whether we show up nice and neat or as a big ol' mess, God is 100% present to us! Reflect about how He loves us despite our mess and then join in for another led meditation. This meditation comes from the book An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. It prompts you to consider how you were created fully by God and not by your own doing. The world would have gone on without you, but God deemed to create you out of love for this time in particular. In gratitude, we offer our praise and thanks to Him and apologize for when we forget this fact! This amazing book has more wonde ..read more

Let's talk about Lent and then meditate on scripture together! This episode uses imaginative prayer, which is a beautiful way to dive deeper into a narrative passage of the Bible and pick up on details you may have missed in a simple reading. If you want to do more imaginative prayer on your own and would like a guide, check out this website: https://campusministry.nd.edu/pray/ways-to-pray/imaginative-prayer-with-scripture/ Sometimes this type of imaginative prayer is called Lectio Divina, but there is also another form of Lectio Divina where you read a part of scripture several times and al ..read more

This episode goes through some of St. Ignatius' Rules for Spiritual Discernment. This is huge for understanding God's voice and voices of evil spirits in your life. Sometimes feeling God's presence and understanding his voice is easy and sometimes it is really hard! Sometimes our prayer feels fueling, refreshing, and like deep communion with God, and sometimes prayer feels dry and like we are just wandering along. In his rules for discernment of spirits, St. Ignatius helps us understand 1) how God's voice sounds depending on our spiritual state (AKA how much sin or virtue rules our lives), 2 ..read more

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, prayer is just hard. Sometimes it is due to logistical difficulties. If that is you, go back and check out the "Prayer: Practicals" and "Prayer: Troubleshooting & Tips" episodes. But sometimes, it's just hard because of stuff we are going through in our personal lives. Major financial difficulties, depression, difficult diagnoses, and more can all affect our every day state, and this can be a huge barrier to prayer. Though we may have nothing to say to God, or seemingly nothing to offer Him, God is no further away. In fact, He has the tendency to come ..read more

Let's talk contemplative prayer! Many saints before us have thrived with hours of contemplative prayer every day, "sitting in the room with Jesus." If vocal prayer is us talking to Jesus and meditative prayer is us focusing on Jesus, contemplative prayer is us listening to Jesus. It is not about our actions, but about God's actions and listening to what He wants to say to us. This is easier said than done, though. Our world is LOUD, BUSY, and DISTRACTING. And our brains are trained to flit from thought to thought, struggling to quiet ourselves enough to hear the still, quiet voice of the Hol ..read more

This episode dives into MEDITATIVE prayer, which takes a little more focus, discipline, and time than vocal prayer. Meditative prayer is beautiful for growing our virtues of patience and helping us develop more intimacy with Jesus! You can meditate on all kinds of things, including: scripture, prayers, pictures, nature, or even just a word. By training our bodies to slow down and focus, we can go much deeper into a portion of the Bible or into a truth that God wants to reveal to us. Since we are physical people, don't skimp on preparing your body to meditate. Remove all distractions, get comfo ..read more

Once we have established a solid routine of prayer, we can work on deepening our prayer so that we can grow closer to Jesus! This episode speaks on many different types of vocal prayer (any time you are speaking to God either out loud, in your heart, or written words). I encourage you to open your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to draw out one type of prayer you can work on. OR you may just choose to just start ordering your prayer according to an acronym I share about: (A)doration (C)ontrition (T)hanksgiving (S)upplication Regardless of what our prayers look like, remember that God looks at ..read more

When life is inconsistent, it can be really hard to find consistency in your prayer! In this episode, we’ll do some troubleshooting. I’ll share the experiences of a few different women that can help you figure out how to make the time for prayer even when life changes. I’ll also give some overall tips that might be helpful! In the next three episodes, we will focus on deepening our prayer lives and therefore our relationships with Jesus ..read more

In this episode, Jenna defines what she means by consistent, daily prayer and goes through an acronym that lists aspects of a good prayer life. Use this acronym to look at your own prayer and see if there are any ways you can improve the environment in which you pray! Next week, she’ll discuss troubleshooting, which can help you if you struggle to find the time of your day to devote to prayer, plus give some more tips from her experience and that of others. The acronym to think about before next episode is: (A)rea (D)uration (E)xclusivity (P)lan (T)ime of Day ..read more

Ready to live deeply rooted and be encouraged to be gentle with yourself, mama friend? Press play and be inspired by author and founder of Live Deeply Rooted, Sopha Rush. Her devotional journal is INCREDIBLE + so BEAUTIFUL! 100 Days Of Living Deeply Rooted is available to purchase - head to https://www.dayspring.com/sopha-rush-100-days-of-living-deeply-rooted-devotional-journal to grab yours today! Then head to www.Instagram.com/sopharush and hang with Sopha. Thanks for being here and may you be encouraged and feel like you’re getting a big virtual hug from us today! God bless you, friend. Xox ..read more