Can you Think or read a prayer

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Brendea

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Can you Think or read a prayer or whisper them or do the words actually have to come out of ones mouth.
I ask beacuse sometimes I get so lost in meditation or my thoughts during a prayer ( especially while doing the rosary) that sometimes whilst my lips are saying the prayer no sound comes out of my mouth
 
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Your prayer is from the heart. Occasionally, your vocal chords are involved. The most fervent prayer I ever offered involved no words at all. Just tears.
 
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God occasionally end up with my thoughts from the heart and tears as well
 
Verbal prayer is beginning prayer. As a person moves toward deeper interior prayer, no words are needed, just being in the presence of God is all that is needed.

St Teresa of Avila said that in the depth of our soul, is where God communicates with us best. It’s were we better understand Him and no words are needed.

Contemplative prayer, no words are needed, just interior presence with God, who dwells within.

Jim
 
While I disagree that “verbal prayer” is always “beginning prayer”, there are many prayer forms and a mental prayer or a “thought prayer” or a “read prayer” is a perfectly fine and acceptable way to pray. Whatever works for you.

The only time we absolutely need to pray out loud is when we are required to do so by the Church, for example when we must say the Our Father, the Profession of Faith, and other prayers with the congregation during the Mass, or when the Manual of Indulgences specifically requires that we “recite” a prayer.
 
God knows our thoughts but I don’t think angels or saints in heaven can read our minds. So, I don’t think just thinking a prayer to angels or saints in heaven would ordinarily be heard by them, unless God somehow intervened, though I suppose they can read lips and hear whispered prayers.

Be that as it may, once, when I was looking for a set lost keys, I silently thought a prayer to St Anthony, asking for assistance in finding them, and I immediately got an idea where they might be and, when I looked there, I found the keys.
 
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The first prayers we learn are verbal prayers which we memorise.

The beginning of prayer, whether at Mass or in the privacy of your own home, generally begins with the Sign of the Cross, said verbally, even when whispered.

Jim
 
Yes, as you note, verbal prayers continue to be an appropriate form of prayer in some adult situations.

The Mass is the highest form of prayer. In the OF form, it is primarily a verbal prayer, although it is of course prayed thoughtfully.

Many communal forms of prayer (group Vespers, group rosaries, etc.) are verbalized to some extent to facilitate people joining together as a community.
 
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