Hello there Rosary lovers! In this post we will ask: how do you pray to God? I will answer this simply, but from a Catholic perspective. However, I don’t deny for a second that God hears the prayers from people all over the world, no matter what their religion 🙂
Prayer is a necessity to human life. We all at times feel like life is asking far more of us than we have power or strength to deal with. It is at times like this that we find ourselves calling out to a Higher Power, to the God way beyond ourselves to come and help us.
Jesus’ Prayer
Jesus was once asked by his disciples how they should pray. Our Lord responded by saying that we should pray the Lord’s prayer.
Many of us are fortunate enough to know this prayer from our youth, since we were taught it in school. Unfortunately, it seems this is becoming a thing of the past nowdays.
The best and most effective way to pray is also the very simplest way to pray, and it is to do simply what Jesus told us to do: to pray the Lord’s prayer.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed by thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil.
[Optional: Amen.]
The absolute simplest and most necessary first step in learning how to pray is to memorise this prayer and to pray it often, daily ideally. 2 or 3 times a day is a good practice.
How to pray the Lord’s prayer
To pray the Lord’s prayer, the Church teaches that we should first briefly prepare ourselves. We should appreciate that we about to pray to Almighty God, which is an awesome thing. We can do this by standing to attention, and clearing and preparing our minds.
It is a good idea to perform the sign of the cross to help us here. It is a great introduction to the Lord’s prayer.
To do the sign of the cross, you flatten your right hand and keep your fingers together. Touch your forehead with the tip of your middle finger saying: ‘In the name of the Father’.
You then touch your belly with the tip of your middle finger, saying: ‘and of the Son’. Finally, you touch your left and then right shoulders with the same part of your hand whilst saying: ‘and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.’
If you want a quick video of that action, watch this.
‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.’
This is an extremely ancient and powerful prayer in and of itself. If you have just done that, congratulations, you have just prayed to God!!
Now you want to simply recite the Lord’s prayer above.
And that’s it, you have prayed a really pleasing prayer to God, the prayer his own divine Son taught us to pray!
So prayer is nothing more complicated than that.
Mary’s Prayer
If you wish to use another prayer, there is another very famous Catholic prayer called the Hail Mary. You simply recite it. The words are:
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
This prayer thrills the heart of God’s Mother (yes, God has a mother!). And anything that thrills Mary’s heart thrills God’s heart.
The Glory Be
You can finish with the following words: ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.’
If you wish, conclude briefly again with the sign of the cross.
Use your own words 🙂
In fact, you can use your own words in prayer to God. God looks at the heart more than to the words anyway, the words are there to help us, not to tell God things. He knows everything anyway!
Talk to God as a dear friend, as a Father. And always remember to be respectful.
Posture?
There is no posture strictly required for prayer, since prayer is designed for all occasions and circumstances.
But the most appropriate recommended by the Church tends to be either standing (as in the Byzantine Catholic traditions) or kneeling (as in the Latin traditions). Most of the time, I pray standing or walking around (I have a lot of excess energy).
Prostrations are also a sign of great reverence for God and humility for the person praying. Prostrations play a very big part in Byzantine Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Islamic practice. We highly recommend prostrations here at Rosary Lovers.
The Rosary
On this site, we recommend the Rosary a great deal because of how powerful it is in bringing people to heaven and helping people in all sorts of ways. It is also blessed with many indulgences by the Church.
Should you be interested in finding how about the Rosary, explore this site.
Should you be interested in Rosary beads, you can look at this link.
If you have any other questions about prayer, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you!
God bless.