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What is Prayer?

 Prayer is simply talking with God. The Church teaches that there are different ways of doing this. There are formal prayers, corporate prayers, private prayers, and interior prayer. There is meditative prayer, which is also called contemplative prayer. We don’t have to speak to be in communion with God, that’s what prayer is, it’s conversation and communion with the Lord. It’s important to start young, and to teach your young people how to pray, because when you get older you will want to develop the habit of prayer. 


You don’t have to use fancy words when you pray, this is called informal prayer. Sometimes when you don’t know what to pray, the church has formal prayers that you can incorporate into your prayer life, like the Our Father, Hail Mary, and other prayers that are called Novenas. Novenas are said with special intentions like your health, and family. Also when you attend a Mass, you will also be called upon to pray corporately. Familiarizing yourself with corporate prayer will help by simply attending a church service. Being that we all wear masks these days, no one will really see if you are not praying the prayers, so it could be a good time to just familiarize yourself again. 


Before we pray, we should forgive those who have offended us because we don’t want unforgiveness blocking our answers from God to our prayers. The Lord taught us to forgive others, as we want to be forgiven, and that if we don’t forgive we won’t be forgiven. To have a clean heart is essential to experiencing God’s love when we pray to Him. We should also be childlike. Jesus taught us that when we humble ourselves like children, we will enter the kingdom of God! We don’t have to be childish, but childlike in our trust and faith. There is a reason why God calls us His children!


Because prayer is conversation and communion with God, we should learn to enjoy it! Prayer can be a struggle at times, and during these times we do have to work hard and persevere because sometimes that is what we are called to do! This is Mike.


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