“If You Like to Live, Pray”: How Prayer & Life Workshops Teach Catholic to Pray and to Live
For many Catholics, prayer is learned by habit—through family devotions, parish rituals, or personal routines quietly formed over time. But for members of Prayer and Life Workshops (PLW), prayer is intentionally taught, practiced, and lived—until it shapes the very fabric of daily life.
A Vision Born from a Gap in the Church
Prayer and Life Workshops was founded by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga, OFM Cap, a Spanish Capuchin priest who noticed a critical gap in pastoral life.
Speaking to Radio Veritas Asia, Consuelo Cacha-Salamanca, a PLW Guide, from Calapan City, Mindoro, Philippines, said, “Fr. Ignacio observed that the Church does not teach people how to pray. He desired to teach people how to pray in a practical, varied, and progressive manner.”
From this vision emerged retreats called “Encounter: An Experience of God”, first held in Chile and later in multiple countries. These retreats evolved into what is now known as Prayer and Life Workshops. In 1997, PLW received official approval from the Holy See, affirming its mission within the universal Church.
A Worldwide Community Rooted in Prayer
Today, Prayer and Life Workshops is carried forward by a global network of Guides.
“The group consists of about 18,000 Guides in 36 countries who have undergone formation and are sent forth to conduct workshops,” Consuelo explained.
Guides meet regularly not only for coordination but for deep communal prayer. Monthly Desert Days provide four hours of silent prayer and one to two hours of reflection sharing, while national coordinations meet every three years for three days of fraternal sharing.
What unites them is a shared understanding of prayer as a living relationship with God—one that does not end in silence but flows into action.
Prayer That Flows Into Life
The name Prayer and Life is deliberate.
“Prayer is taught in a progressive and experiential manner,” the Consuelo said. “Prayer must flow into life, based on Gospel values and centered on Jesus Christ.”
Participants describe their spiritual journey as deeply Christ-centered.
“Like Jesus, our model, we pray using the Bible as our guide to be filled with God’s grace—His joy and strength—and then go on with life and act as Jesus would.”
Prayer is also profoundly relational.
“Praying for me is being with Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit, Mama Mary, the saints, my dear ones—living and dead. Their presence gives me joy, strength, guidance, and hope for the happiness yet to come.”
Community prayer strengthens a lifelong vocation of service: “Praying with our community of Guides and fellow worshippers inspired me to a lifelong commitment to service to God and the Church.”
Inside a Prayer and Life Session
PLW sessions follow a structured format to foster silence, reflection, and encounter with God. Each session begins with a silencing exercise and a review of the week’s prayer practice.
“One Bible text is assigned for each of the seven days of the week,” the Consuelo explained. Participants then share reflections on Scripture, experiences with prayer methods, and life situations related to the session’s theme.
Sessions include the proclamation of the Word of God, community meditation, audio messages on the session topic, and guided practice of a prayer method. Weekly assignments help participants maintain their practice beyond the gatherings.
Faith Amid Daily Pressures
Sustaining prayer amid modern distractions is challenging.
“Preoccupation with mass media, gadgets, daily sustenance, livelihood, sickness, and family problems” are common struggles, the Guide said.
Yet community support plays a crucial role:
“We support each other financially, emotionally, and spiritually.”
At the heart of this perseverance is trust in God:
“We pray because we believe, and we continue praying because God always gives us reason to believe and have faith.”
Belonging to PLW also fosters accountability:
“Being part of this group has challenged me to live up to its name—to be a prayerful person living out my prayer life.”
Healing, Forgiveness, and Transformation
Many participants testify to profound personal transformation.
“From family members, we learn that parents, children, or siblings had been transformed by attending PLW,” Consuelo shared.
Others describe reconciliation and healing:
“Participants testify they had been healed and experienced peace because of reconciliation of relationships,” while many express gratitude for learning to read and pray with the Bible for the first time.
One Guide recalled a powerful moment:
“During a session where Guides led participants to accept people they find difficult to understand or forgive, I remembered someone I found difficult. The session led me to understand, forgive, and love that person—for the love of Jesus.”
Prayer Lived as Mission
Prayer in PLW naturally leads to service. In St. Francis Parish, Lazareto, Calapan City, Guides regularly conduct workshops for Persons Deprived of Liberty at the city jail.
“This mission is guided by a simple question learned in prayer: ‘What would Jesus do if He were in my place?’ Answering this honestly will surely make us respond to social concerns and the needs of others according to Gospel values,” the Guide said.
A Call to a Praying Church
For Catholics who feel spiritually dry or distant, the message from PLW is both urgent and hopeful:
“Prayer for anybody is a matter of life and death. If you like to live, pray.”
Prayer begins with listening:
“One can start by reading and meditating on the Word of God in the Bible—conversing with Him as with a friend or parent. The effort will surely pay off at the end.”
Looking ahead, the community hopes for deeper integration into parish and vicariate programs:
“We pray and hope that PLW will be given its appropriate function as partners in evangelization.”
Their final message is simple yet radical:
“Pray, pray, pray—not to control God, but to let God control our lives.” And always, pray for Church and government leaders, and for all who are called to build God’s Kingdom on earth.
