Convert from Protestant learning to pray as Catholic

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fraevo63
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Fraevo63

Guest
I am in the process of conversion and I must honestly say that:
I still pray like a “Protestant”.
I am new at Catholicism and understand there is so much more for me to learn about prayer from the Catholic Church but I have always been bad at memorization and I may always pray spontaneously. I also understand that conversion is a continuous process even after being in full communion with the Church. Anyone with a “protestant” background care to share how their prayer life has developed as Catholic?
Thank you 🙏❤️
 
One thing about Catholicism is that there are dozens of different ways to pray that are alll within the Catholic tradition. People are called to pray in all sorts of different ways depending on their personalities and interests. Personally I think it’s worth learning about and trying out different prayer techniques and seeing what fits.

Off the top of my head, you might check out
  • the Liturgy of the Hours
  • lectio divina
  • the rosary
  • the examen
  • Ignatian contemplation
  • adoration
  • centering or contemplative prayer
  • chaplets
  • novenas
  • Taize prayer
  • recited prayers
Don’t try to do them all! See what attracts you.
 
Fraevo63 said:
I am in the process of conversion and I must honestly say that:
I still pray like a “Protestant”.
I am new at Catholicism and understand there is so much more for me to learn about prayer from the Catholic Church but I have always been bad at memorization and I may always pray spontaneously. I also understand that conversion is a continuous process even after being in full communion with the Church. Anyone with a “protestant” background care to share how their prayer life has developed as Catholic?
Thank you 🙏❤️
Click to expand...
My suggestion is dont forget where you came from. Keep what is good which could be all of it. There is no wrong way to pray if it is coming from the heart.

Peace!!!
 
I’d strongly recommend the following as very basic Catholic daily prayers that punctuate the day. You’ll want to learn these and say them slowly, from the heart. Spontaneous prayer–just talking to God all day long–is great too! And try to go to Adoration on a regular schedule.
Morning Offering
Prayer before meals
Rosary
Examining of conscience and Act of Contrition
 
Speaking as a convert, I say don’t sweat it. It will gradually incorporate itself within you. Personally, I started out with the basic prayers and went from there. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with spontaneous prayer. God knows your heart and won’t take away points for praying your way. As already mentioned, people pray in different ways. Believe me when I say, it will all come together for you. Probably more effortlessly than you’d imagine. There is great info on this site as well as very good advice to assist you. Welcome Home!! 🙂
 
Hi thank you all for taking time to answer my question.
I have another.
I would like to ask our Blessed Mother to pray for me but in my own brief and personal way. Is this okay by the Church?
 
Last edited:
Fraevo63 said:
Hi thank you all for taking time to answer my question.
I have another.
I would like to ask our Blessed Mother to pray for me but in my own brief and personal way. Is this okay by the Church?
Click to expand...
Absolutely! As you say she is “our” blessed mother.

Peace!!!
 
Fellow convert.

The very best books (wish I’d had them years earlier)

Fr Dubay “The Prayer Primer” followed by “Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer”

Then, Fr Phillipe’s “Time For God”
 
I pray in my own words except for a few short prayers which are very convenient to memorise for use when praying the rosary,
Our Father,
Glory Be,
Hail Mary,
and the Fatima prayer.
 
Hello! I definitely still pray spontaneously! And I am teaching my kids to talk to God and Jesus as they would a friend. (Dont worry, I am also teaching them respect as well!) But one of the first prayers I was excited to learn that was Catholic was the rosary…LOVE that prayer! And I just as spontaneously talk to Mother Mary as well.
I added Catholic prayers here and there throughout my time since my conversion. My kids and I pray the morning offering together every morning (I love that one too!) And I am teaching them all the prayers (can’t think of the name for them…the ones they need for PSR)
But there is nothing wrong with continuing to pray spontaneously from your heart! I have found sometimes in my day I need to talk to God with my words, and sometimes I need words that have been handed down.
Bless you in your conversion! I will be praying for you!
 
If I do end up converting, I intend to still pray the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. Why? Because they’re good prayers.

The Catholic Church has a rich heritage of wonderful prayers, but by no means does it claim that it has an exhaustive list of acceptable prayers.

Just pray in a way that brings you closer to God.
 
For years I’d say the preamble to the rosary every morning. Followed by a Hail Holy Queen, an act of contrition, & a “My Lord & My God, take from me…”

Then the rest of the day it’s spontaneously talking to the Father, Jesus, Mary.

About six months ago I started asking our blessed mother to teach me to pray & while I don’t think there is anything wrong with spontaneous prayer I think there is something “better” about structured prayer.

I try to say a rosary daily. She asked us to. Kinda hard to say no.

I try to say the Divine Mercy Chaplet daily.

I say the morning & evening prayers daily. The prayer of the church, said with the church universal.

I like St Michael’s Chaplet. I try to say it often. Probably should say it daily. Mother Angelica used to say it daily.

I still pray spontaneously but I believe my spontaneous prayer has gotten better because of my structured prayer.
 
Last edited:
The Church has some beautiful prayers and devotions, but spontaneous prayer is not a strictly Protestant way to pray. Keep that part of your prayer life. Nothing wrong with it.
 
For me, my Protestant upbringing and what I learned about prayer there lets me better connect with the liturgies and rites of the Church, while my Catholic faith has provided more framework to the spontaneous, unscripted prayer style of my youth.

For instance, the Pentecostal style of prayer, for those unfamiliar, is where one person prays aloud as the leader, and everyone else also prays aloud at the same time, and almost no one is using the same words at the same time! (Sort of a person A “Lord, come down and give us your blessing…” while persons B, C, D, and the rest of the congregation is interjecting variations of “Yes, Jesus” “Send your Spirit here Lord” “Hallelujah” etc). I find myself inaudibly doing this - sometimes lips moving, sometimes not - during Mass and other prayers led by others if we’re not supposed to be engaged in a scripted response.

On the flip side, I always felt awkward leading prayer or being the sole prayer giver when a spontaneous one was expected because I never felt I knew what to say - until I learned my Catholic faith better. Our prayers have a “template” to them that’s patterned after an old Jewish style: thank/acknowledge/praise, then remembrance, then petitions and needs, then thanks/blessing/grace/dedication. Now, I may not know the precise words I’m going to use until the Holy Spirit draws them across my lips, but I know the pattern to use.

“Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to gather in this online community and learn more about You and to encourage one another. You are the source of all blessings, and we rightly pause to offer our praise. Come now upon all who read these pages, that they may know your grace and a more intimate relationship with You, Lord. We humbly seek your guidance and ask that You grant whatever is good for us in accordance with Your will, and help us to clearly know and understand what that means for us. May we never fail to give You the glory and praise, Lord. Keep us grateful and under Your divine protection. We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.”
 
One other thing, we Converts often arrive with a gift: the ability to extemporaneously pray. Don’t every lose that! Keep doing it. Teach it to your children by modeling it at home, not to the exclusion of formal prayers, but, as simply another part of the balanced prayer “menu”.

Working for a parish, people call or come by asking for prayer so often. If neither priest is in the office, the staff comes and gets me or gives me the phone because I am comfortable just praying from the heart. One sweet older parishioner asked for prayer, I prayed with her and she called back asking for a copy of the prayer. She became a little agitated when I told her that it was not a written prayer, it just was my talking to God in that moment 🙂

I’ve kind of dipped my toe in many forms of formal prayer. Good priests and spiritual directors have encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone, the one form of formal prayer that I am still working on is contemplative prayer (and that book “Time for God” was suggested by two of them to me at different times!)

More than a few Converts I know go very easily to Lectio Divina.

I spent a few years wrestling with Marian prayer at the beginning, then I fell in love with the Rosary and prayed many every day. Still, it is where I go when I cannot find any words to pray, and I love praying the rosary in a group. For me it is like everyone singing the same song that we know by heart. I began to collect chaplets and that is an entire world. The Chaplet of the Precious Blood has become my dearest chaplet, the beads on mine are little hearts and with my husband’s heart failure, it is more meaningful.

The thing that really stuck with this convert, the one that feels the most comfortable to me, is the Divine Office. While I am not at a point in my life where I can pray the full office, Night Prayer always fits. It is something my husband and I can pray together (something else that comes more naturally to many converts), even when he is in the hospital (common occurrence for us).

Stations of the Cross is also a very special set of meditations for me. I collect “versions” and finally was gifted a SotC Chaplet a few months ago.

The Fr Dubay books I listed above, they really did teach me so much about prayer.
 
Good prayer comes from the heart. It can be spontaneous or structured. Group or alone. Do what you feel comfortable with, there is no one size fits all.
 
I’m not a Protestant convert, but just wanted to say that it’s perfectly okay for you to continue to pray spontaneously as a Catholic, as long as you join in the required prayers and responses at Mass and don’t go off and do your own thing there.

All other prayer outside of Mass obligations (and in some cases Liturgy of the Hours for those clergy and members of orders required to pray it) is a voluntary private devotion that you are free to structure as you wish, as long as you are reverent and reasonable (like not shouting prayers out loud in a chapel where you’re supposed to be silent).

God is just fine with your spontaneous prayer and in fact many of us Catholics pray spontaneously throughout the day, we just don’t do it out loud. Probably all day long I’m all like “help me God with this” and “thank you God for that” and just conversing with God in the car, etc.

You might want to look particularly into Ignatian spirituality, as they have various ways of guiding prayer and providing principles to reflect on that work quite well with free-form prayer and will help to deepen your relationship with God. Here are some resources on Ignatian prayer. You can pick and choose ones that work well for you.

 
Last edited:
Fraevo63 said:
I am in the process of conversion and I must honestly say that:
I still pray like a “Protestant”.
Click to expand...
One Protestant to another… there is nothing wrong with “praying like a Protestant”. Keep praying as you were taught. Personal spontaneous prayer is effective.

The beauty of the Catholic faith is the great diversity of ways to pray. Add in that diversity bit by bit until you have the kind of spiritual life that is beneficial for you.

I’d recommend starting with two methods: the rosary and lectio divina.

You can use prayer aids while praying the rosary if you have a hard time remembering the prayers and meditations. The more you do it, the more you will commit the prayers to memory and the deeper your experience will be.

Lectio divina is likely to feel familiar to you, and it does not require memorization. Lectio is a way of praying scripture. It is a multi-step process of going deeper into scripture and uniting it with your personal prayers. Here is a good explanation: https://www.osv.com/More/MediaRoom/...59/ArticleID/10346/What-Is-Lectio-Divina.aspx

You can also find lots of YouTude videos explaining the stages in more detail.

Welcome home.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top