Go, Make Time: pray with Bishop Patrick

Three short guided meditations, about twenty minutes each. Launching on the feast of the Sacred Heart, listen wherever you are.

Two fifteen-year-olds in the same parish begin every morning with the same prayer. They ask the Holy Spirit to show them small chances to be kind that day. Then they say: “Lord, what today are you and I going to do together today?” Bishop Patrick confirmed them both, and he has not forgotten them.

It is that ordinary, and that small. It is also the spirit behind something the Bishop is offering across the diocese this June. He has recorded three short guided meditations, about twenty minutes each. You press play, and he prays with you from beginning to end.

You do not need to be in a church to do it, though a church is a good place to pray if you can get there. You can listen on your own, with your family or friends, at home, with your headphones in on the way to work. Wherever you are, he says at the start, what matters is that you have made the time.

1 · Encounter: Being loved by God, personally.

2 · Discipleship: What it means to follow Jesus in an ordinary life.

3 · Mission: Being sent to the people already in front of you.

The three follow a thread. The first is about being loved by God, not in a general way, but personally. The Bishop has said for years that many people, churchgoers included, often struggle to believe that. The second asks what it means to follow Jesus in the small print of ordinary daily life. The third is about being sent: holding one person before God, by name, and asking what the Holy Spirit might do through you for them.

There is no music and no production around the edges. Just the bishop’s voice, a few words of Scripture, and some silence to sit in. He leaves space for you to reflect, to speak with the Lord and to let the Lord speak to you. An old man once described his hours in church to his priest, the saintly Curé d’Ars, like this: “I look at Him, and He looks at me.”

The guided meditations launch on the feast of the Sacred Heart, the day the Church celebrates the love of Jesus for each person. They are not tied to a season, though. They will stay here, available, for whenever you would like to pray with them again.

Complete Audio Series

There is also a printed version, for anyone who would rather pray on paper than on a screen. It holds all three meditations in one place. Parishes are also welcome to print it and leave it at the back of church or in an adoration chapel.