Bedtime prayers, grace before meals, quiet time before Mass. For many Catholics, prayer is woven into daily and weekly routines, and ebbs and flows depending on the challenges and blessings of life.

Nonetheless, throughout Prayer and Listening Events held from September 2019 to March 2020 in preparation for an Archdiocesan Synod, Archbishop Bernard Hebda repeatedly heard Catholics ask for guidance in improving their prayer lives.

In response, Archbishop Hebda is inviting Catholics to take part in a five-part virtual series called “Praying with Scripture,” beginning Sept. 13. Through videos and written materials, participants will learn how to pray with passages from the Bible.

Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chairman of the Synod Executive Committee, said participants in the “Praying with Scripture” series will gain tools to help them encounter the love of Christ more powerfully in Scripture.

“It’s a practical way to learn to pray with Scripture using all of the faculties of the soul, including the imagination,” he said. “The goal is to help them develop a daily prayer life that leads to deeper union with God.”

The series has three components: five videos, talk outlines with discussion questions, and prayer companions. Archbishop Hebda and Bishop Cozzens teach the series, and videos will include testimonials from Catholics throughout the archdiocese. For those who would like to follow the series in a group with family or friends, talk outlines with discussion questions will be provided for each talk. In addition, 25 written prayer companions will be provided for use in prayer throughout the five-week series, each containing a Scripture passage with a guided reflection. The videos and materials will be translated and provided in Spanish.

Following the Sept. 13 series premiere, new videos will be posted on the following Sundays. Each week’s video, between 45 and 60 minutes long, will also be streamed on the archdiocese’s YouTube channel and Facebook page on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. during the five-week series. The videos will be accessible via archspm.org/synod.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the formal Synod consultation process was pushed back one year to 2021-2022. The Parish Consultation with small groups will occur at every parish during fall 2021, a Deanery Consultation will take place in winter 2022, and the Synod Assembly will take place Pentecost weekend in June 2022.

Therese Coons, Synod director, said rescheduling the process created new opportunities this year to provide resources requested in the Prayer and Listening Events, including the “Praying with Scripture” series. A separate, five-session virtual retreat on healing and hope begins in October.

The Synod process is designed to help Catholics discern where the Holy Spirit is leading the local Church, Bishop Cozzens said. He hopes those participating in the process will grow in their prayer lives, so that the whole local Church will be led by God and not just natural wisdom.

“In prayer, we learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit, not just our own human spirit — and there is a difference,” he said.

Interspersed throughout the video lessons are Catholics of different ages, backgrounds and ethnicities describing prayer and their prayer lives, how it has transformed them and impacted their lives, said Yen Fasano of St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis and a member of the Synod Executive Committee and Synod Prayer Team.

“They represent all the features of our beautiful Church,” she said of the speakers. Some describe a strong encounter with Jesus or God the Father, or the power of prayer and how it impacted their lives, she said.

“It was a huge task because it required people to be vulnerable,” Fasano said, “and it was beautiful because people were really open and shared their hearts.”

Fasano said hearing people describe their prayer experiences was very powerful. “(Some) moved me to tears, to be honest, because you saw how the Holy Spirit spoke through them,” she said.

“You realize how beautiful the relationship and the encounter is with Christ that people get to experience, and then you realize all of the beauty, the wisdom you’re able to extract from them to learn how to better your prayer life and relationship,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a deeply moving prayer series.”