Prayer
What is Prayer?
Prayers is the raising onf one's heart and mind to God, or the requesting of good things from God.
Praying is the bedrock of our faith. It is how we talk to God in all the seasons of life. When we are in need and when we are thankgul. It is our converstaion with Him, and without it, we will be lost.
How can i Pray?
There are many forms of prayer in Christianity and many people who have taught others how to pray. However, the authority on prayer would be Jesus Christ, who was God and had great intimacy with God the Father.When asked how to pray by his disciples, Jesus said:
“When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation'.’”
(Luke 11:2-4)
This has become the basis of the Our Father prayer, and it outlines a few types of prayer that are common:
Adoration/worship: 'Hallowed be your name'. In this kind of prayer, we praise the greatness of God and we acknowledge our deep dependence on Him. The Holy Mass is full of prayers of adoration or worship, such as the Gloria (the Glory to God).
Petition: 'Give us each day our daily bread'. Prayers of petition are maybe the prayer you’re most familiar with. Simply put, this is when we ask God for things we need. The example Jesus gives us is an extremely practical one, asking for food for the day, showing us that none of our needs are beneath talking to God about. But our petitions should always be open to accepting God's Will, - Jesus shows us this by praying in the Our Father 'Thy will be done'.
Intercession is when we pray for others, interceding for them to God. This is a very natural prayer as it is offering those dearest to us to the heart of God, entrusting them to Him. So as Christians, we can pray prayers of intercession for anyone, for those we love, for those we work with, for strangers - even for our enemies, whom Jesus calls us to love!
Thanksgiving This type of prayer makes sense if we think of prayer as a relationship - we cannot just be asking for things from a person, we must also thank them for what they give us! When we apply this to prayer, we realise that there is so much for us to be thankful for. The best known kind of thanksgiving prayer is probably saying grace before meals, but we should be able to thank God throughout the day.
