We're all smart. That's a simplified summation of Howard Gradner's "Multiple Intelligence" work. This theory recognizes that there are several (at least seven) ways to learn and be smart. The Multiple Intelligence theory has influenced the ways teachers teach by acknowledging different learning styles and creating new teaching methods.

One image of this theory is a room with several doors. Our students stand behind the doors and they each need a particular entryway (spatial, linguistic, etc.) through which to enter. The doors represent the many diverse ways we can pray and express our spirituality. Our "spiritual intelligence" may be largely untapped because we have not entered a door that best fits who we are.

Our spiritual lives can be enhanced by walking through and trying out different doors. As teachers, we can use these diverse doors in teaching prayer to children, especially those children who find prayer difficult.

The Door of Liturgy and Ritual

Many types of prayers use this door.

• Linguistic learners love the spoken word and prayer words.
• Logical and mathematical thinkers (who seek patterns and meanings) feel comfortable with the rhythm of good liturgical experiences.
• Musical learners most readily enter prayer through the music and pauses of liturgy.
• The bodily kinesthetic learner can enter through the movements that often punctuate ritual.

Because liturgical and ritual prayer can touch so many types of prayers, we catechists and teachers should use them more often by integrating them into our everyday prayer and classroom instruction. Consider using the words and actions of liturgy as you begin or end religion classes. When we invite all types of learners and prayers to participate, we are also then encouraging their deeper participation during our Sunday parish liturgies.

Quiet and Meditation

Though everyone needs time for quiet, the intra-personal learner gains strength and direction through solitude and meditation.

• Guided meditations are doorways to this prayer.
• Personal journals can be sources of self-knowledge and reflection that lead the prayer to deeper faith.

Catechists and prayer leaders can teach recollection by providing spaces and times of quiet. You might use just 20-30 seconds at first and gradually give more time for quiet. Invite children to close their eyes, listen to their breathing, hold a thought or feeling quietly, invite Jesus to be with them. Sometimes quiet music can help set the tone for such reflection.

Inter-personal learners need to talk and share with a prayer companion or faith community. This prayer comes in touch with God through shared faith experiences. It is in community with others that their prayers surface and find voice.

Their doorway might be a prayer circle, shared reflection, or a prayer group. Prayer companions can be peer groups, older buddies, or family members. Opportunities for dialogue and community-building are key for inter-personal prayers.

For some, the best place to pray is in nature. Whether at a lakeshore, before a beautiful sunset, or amid the snow, all of creation seems to call them to communion and praise. Taking children outside to a local park or even looking out the window can inspire prayerful time. For others, it is music that connects their souls to God. Listening to music, chanting, or singing are ways these prayers touch and feed their spirits.

Prayer in Action

For the bodily-kinesthetic learner, prayer means action. Prayerful moments can be serving at a soup kitchen, raking leaves for an elderly neighbor, or caring for a baby. Through touching, seeing, and hearing with love and compassion, our physical bodies can become expressions of faith. Our movement, dance or service become prayer and an entrance into a deeper relationship with God.

Providing numerous opportunities for service and ways to reflect on the meaning of the actions, lays sound framework for prayers who enter this door.

In working with a student prayer group at our elementary school, I offered a variety of prayer styles. I saw how different prayer forms reached and invited different students into prayer. Most of the students love guided meditations. Perhaps this door is not commonly used and in a world of words and busyness, it may be a welcome opportunity. Using a variety of prayer forms -- litany, ritual, music, silence, liturgy, guided meditations -- increases the chances that all students will be touched, and ensures that no one will be left outside a closed door. We are all spiritual. God within awaits. Once inside, the power of prayer erupts, miracles begin, and faith grows.

Kathy Chateau is a campus minister at St. Clare of Montefalco Elementary School in Grosse Pointe Park, Mich. She is co-author of Celebrating Catholic Rites and Rituals in Religion Class (Twenty-Third Publications). This article originally appeared in Religion Teacher's Journal, March 2000.