Prayer in our lives

From the simplest prayer of “God Help Me!” to the most involved recitation of praise during a Holy Hour, God hears us. This much we know. Prayer is the most important part of our lives. We must pray if we want to know Jesus.

Prayer is a wonderful activity that fills us with peace and is one of the most powerful activities known to man. Wars have been averted, lives have been saved, and hearts have been converted through prayer. Prayer is “The elevation of the mind and heart to God in praise of his glory; a petition made to God for some desired good, or in thanksgiving for some good received, or in intercession for others before God. Through prayer, the Christian experiences a communion with God through Christ in the Church.” – CCC definition of prayer.

How do we pray? By humbling ourselves before God we form the basis for legitimate and sincere prayer. Many people think of God like a spare tire: He will get us out of an emergency, but we hope we never have to use Him. How can we expect to love Him if that is our perception of Him? We must therefore humble ourselves. We must admit to our sinfulness and our unworthiness of God’s mercy. In humbling ourselves, we see that God is superior to us and that we need Him in our lives, guiding our actions.

There are 5 main types of prayer: 1) Adoration, 2) Petition, 3) Intercession, 4) Thanksgiving, and 5) Praise. We should strive to pray in each of these ways throughout our day. If we find ourselves addressing God in one of these ways constantly, it is probably time to reevaluate our relationship with Him. God provides us with many graces if we ask for them, but we must also thank Him, glorify Him, and praise Him.

We must adore God for His greatness. Our humility in prayer is expressed as awe or by giving glory to God during adoration. We simply recognize God as the Uncaused Cause, the Necessary Being, and the One who holds all things in existence by the mere act of His will. We can think of the magnificent genius of His plan of salvation for us. The amazing act of His Love by which He gave us Jesus as the ransom for our sins should inspire us to adore Him. “For God so loved the World that He gave His only Son that whoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

In petition, we ask God to give us assistance in some way. This is how many people pray exclusively. Sometimes we use God selfishly. Are we always asking Him for something? Do we only strike up the conversation with Him when the going gets rough? What would we do with a friend that only wants to speak to us when they needed something? We should always thank God for hearing our prayer, even if the prayer was not answered in the way or at the time when we wanted it to be. God knows best, so we can be sure that our prayers are answered, even if we don’t agree with the outcome. We must also remember to ask Him for help when we need it. We must realize that we cannot make it through life without His help. It is not wrong to ask for help, but we must be sure we are not trying to use God like a vending machine and constantly looking for a gift.

The prayer of intercession can be incredibly powerful. Intercession is the “asking on behalf of another” (CCC 2635). We can pray as the intercessors for our brothers and sisters in the faith. Our prayers are especially powerful when we beseech the Lord to bless others without their knowledge. It is truly an unselfish act to ask Jesus to grant someone graces and refrain from taking credit for it. We can also ask the saints to intercede for us, since they have a special closeness to our Lord.

Thanksgiving is the expression of our acknowledgment of the many graces that God showers upon us. This prayer should, like the other forms of prayer be done in humility. We must thank Him for answering our prayers, even if we don’t agree with how they were answered. It is important to thank God for unanswered prayers. Imagine if we all got exactly what we prayed for. It would be chaos because the more we have, the more we want. That is the nature of greed. We should also thank God for our mere existence. He brought us into the world to live the wonderful human experience. He gave us free will that we may choose to love Him. He gave us every material and immaterial gift we have. For all these things, we must express our sincerest gratitude for His wonderful works.

Praise is the prayer by which we sing of the glorious and wonderful nature of God. We praise God not for “what He does, but simply because HE IS”. – CCC 2639. Our praise for God should express our humility and exalt His greatness. Praise helps all the other types of prayer reach fulfillment.

Prayer must be a dialogue with God. God is always willing to converse with us. If only we were disposed to do the same! Fortunately, the dialogue can begin whenever we are ready. All it takes is for us to begin speaking to Him. There are no hard and fast rules for praying. We can follow a script, or we can pour our heart out to Him. We can pray for hours, or we can simply invoke the name of “Jesus”.

As a dialogue, we must also listen to what Jesus wishes to speak to us. In the stillness of our hearts and minds, we can hear the whisper of God’s voice, leading us on in our journey. Sometimes God speaks to us in subtle ways, such as when He spoke to Elijah through a gentle breeze:

So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

We must strive to nurture our prayerful relationship with God. What happens when we do not talk to a friend for many years even though we had the opportunity? The friendship fades. God will never let His end of the friendship fade. It is our neglect that causes it to deteriorate. Let us constantly work to improve our dialogue with God.