Catholic Prayers

[Polluted]

What is it that’s so beautiful and special about Catholic prayers. I myself love all the beautiful and poetic options one has to choose from. Even the Lord’s Prayer sounds like something one would find in a prayer book eventually had he never given it to us.

Sit a protestant in a room and tell him to pray for 2 hours. What’s it gonna look and sound like?

Do the same thing to a Catholic and they literally could knock our their 2 hours easy. I know Catholics get scolded by our protestant brothers for the same prayers said over and over but if I decided to pray for a huge chunk of time…it probably wouldn’t hurt to have some structure or at least a foundation of meditative and contemplative prayers at your disposal.

Seems better to say a few Hail Mary prayers than to ask God for a Ferrari and beg him to use his magic wand to make everything perfect

 

[Nelka]

Sit a protestant in a room and tell him to pray for 2 hours. What’s it gonna look and sound like?

It’s awful although I do aim this at the non-denominational Protestants.

As a support worker for a Christian company I have sat at a handover meeting with my Protestant colleagues where they pray like this…

Please help “Adam” get up this morning as he is always nervous when he gets up and help him get downstairs as the stairs make him nervous and help him eat breakfast peacefully as he is always anxious at breakfast time and he him with his medication as he is always nervous at medication time and help him when he has his shower as he is always nervous in at shower time and help him get dressed as he is so anxious and help him relax today as he struggles to relax…

This goes on and on and then onto the next person.

I haven’t heard the Our Father even once.

 

[peter26]

Catholics tend towards rote prayer, e.g. the Rosary. Protestants tend towards ad lib prayers, which some people can do better than others. It was something I used to find very difficult, so when I discovered Catholic rote praying I embraced it, even before I converted. Much easier to say “For the intention of N, Our Father…”, than have to come up with the words. The point is the praying, not the literary work.

Having said that, it hasn’t always been this way. Ever heard/read any of the prayers from the Book of Common Prayer? Beautiful, elegant, humbling. Look it up if you are not familiar. I use the BCP for Daily Office and use many of its prayers at other times. Here’s a very nice one to use on the way to church for instance

ALMIGHTY God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

My family and friends (I’m a convert) always argued, and I believed for many years, that the ad lib prayers allowed us to say what we needed to say - whatever was on our hearts. The rote prayer, they argued, didn’t have any meaning.

I have come to the point where I do both in my daily prayers, but I often find a written prayer in one of my books captures my thoughts and sentiments that I would like to share with the Lord so much better than anything I could come up with extemporaneously.

Whenever we pray, we have to remember that this is the Almighty we’re addressing. Who am I to do so? It’s intimidating, especially in public; the protestant churches I grew up in called on people at random to pray in church. I was terrified! On the other hand, there’s a reason Jesus taught us to call God “our Father”. That is comforting and reassuring. My point being, I believe the rote prayer leads us to a deeper and more personal prayer life than the ad libbing alone - though that has its place.