"Correct" Prayers

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Dennislp3

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I am someone who deals with lots of social and confidence issues. These things seem to manifest readily in my prayer attempts as well. To me praying is the same as talking to someone and I am also worried about correctness. I have been protestant my whole life and I am just now starting to convert to Catholicism. I know that there are many prayers and ways they are taught and I often worry about messing them up.

I was once told that God hears the sincerity of our prayers and not the sophistication.

So I wonder…if I totally butcher a prayer…maybe mumble it out and leave half of it out and do whatever things I could do to mess it up (making me more nervous and prone to mess it up lol) do you think that this is “ok” as long as I am not just making a lazy prayer? (eg doing it on purpose)

I guess my biggest concern is with the Rosary. I have studied it a large amount and see with it some very powerful implications and I personally feel that it alone could really be a major factor in helping me stay on track with my faith…on the flip side…I cant do it lol…I am learning and all so I expect certain room for error there but it still worries me…and bugs me…

I know if I were being prayed to (talked to) and someone couldn’t get any of it straight and made no sense after a while I would get irritated simply because I feel it would be a lack of respect to not learn and all…

anyways I am rambling now lol…any advice?
 
First, my pastor once told me that our particular devotions of choice, such as the Rosary, are optional. I would think that doing them is for your own edification, so how you do it is a personal choice. That is, unless you are reciting it along with other people in which case you would want to keep the same rhythm as the others.

I agree that the sincerity of the prayer is more important than the technical details. Some of the greatest prayers were simple, “My Lord and my God!” or, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Alan
 
Dennislp3 said:
I am someone who deals with lots of social and confidence issues. These things seem to manifest readily in my prayer attempts as well. To me praying is the same as talking to someone and I am also worried about correctness. I have been protestant my whole life and I am just now starting to convert to Catholicism. I know that there are many prayers and ways they are taught and I often worry about messing them up.

I was once told that God hears the sincerity of our prayers and not the sophistication.

So I wonder…if I totally butcher a prayer…maybe mumble it out and leave half of it out and do whatever things I could do to mess it up (making me more nervous and prone to mess it up lol) do you think that this is “ok” as long as I am not just making a lazy prayer? (eg doing it on purpose)

I guess my biggest concern is with the Rosary. I have studied it a large amount and see with it some very powerful implications and I personally feel that it alone could really be a major factor in helping me stay on track with my faith…on the flip side…I cant do it lol…I am learning and all so I expect certain room for error there but it still worries me…and bugs me…

I know if I were being prayed to (talked to) and someone couldn’t get any of it straight and made no sense after a while I would get irritated simply because I feel it would be a lack of respect to not learn and all…

anyways I am rambling now lol…any advice?
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Saint Padre Pio once said that if he had to start praying the Rosary from the beginning every time he made a mistake he would never finish a Rosary in his lifetime.
Don’t worry about mistakes. Praying with sincerity is what counts.
 
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Dennislp3:
I was once told that God hears the sincerity of our prayers and not the sophistication.

So I wonder…if I totally butcher a prayer…maybe mumble it out and leave half of it out and do whatever things I could do to mess it up (making me more nervous and prone to mess it up lol) do you think that this is “ok” as long as I am not just making a lazy prayer? (eg doing it on purpose)
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You might reflect a bit on Jesus’ words, “God is Spirit, and they who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” Jn. 4:24. Words that we pray are not entirely spirit. Just lifting up a glance of love to God, without words, is prayer - pure spirit.

What words help us to do is bring understanding into our mind so that the heart can worship. They need not be precisely exact, focused upon the meaning, or fully conscious. St. Teresa was very disturbed by the wanderings of her imagination when she tried to pray, and advised us to ignore these as we would those pesty flies that buzz about. Our “will” (intent) is praying, even though our “mind” (understanding and imagination) may wander. You are correct that God sees the purity and love behind this intent and effort to pray.

St. Therese had problems continuously with praying the rosary, as do many of us. If this prayer is not helping your devotion, maybe you could try a shorter, but powerful one - the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which was given to us by God Himself. The power of this prayer is very great for those we intercede for, and it takes only about 5-7 minutes to pray it.

Just ask the Lord to lead you in prayer, and pay attention to the attractions of your heart as you pray. Stay with those that you find helpful.

👍
 
Wasn’t it St John Vianney who said, " One need not say much to pray well".

For me, I start out with the traditional prayers to get into the right mindset, and them move on to more of a conversation about Gods will, giving thanks, and then my prayer intentions.

If you are having trouble with the rosary, maybe you can get a cd of it, and pray along with it, until you got it on your own. It does take some practice.
 
there is no law that says you have to pray set prayers…or that you cant alter them to suit your individual prayer needs…

you can write your own prayers, or better yet pray in your own words…

you cant get praying wrong, as long as you are talking to god out loud, or in your mind or heart then you are doing it great…

and everybody id different so everybody has their own way that they pray

hope this helps

🙂
 
Thank you all for the responses…it is very encouraging to see these things.
 
Dennislp3 said:
I know if I were being prayed to (talked to) and someone couldn’t get any of it straight and made no sense after a while I would get irritated simply because I feel it would be a lack of respect to not learn and all…
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God is our Father and we are His tiny children. Does a loving parent get irritated when the toddler can’t speak in good sentences? No! The parent is thrilled to hear the feeblest attempt at talking - DaDa and MaMa are some of the sweetest sounds parents hear.

What is in your heart is so much more important than what comes out of your mouth! It’s fine to pray in your own words or even in silence. If you want to pray the Rosary, perhaps you could start small with only one decade/mystery at a time.

Betsy
 
Dont worry about messing up prayers early in your Catholic life. I have been Catholic 3 years now (Tiber swim team Class of 07) and just recently have I FINALLY been able to get the Nicene Creed down in full.

I grew up in the Methodist church and we used the Apostles Creed in the service so i already knew that but I kept butchering the two toghether and would up up recieting the Niceostles Creed haha.

The great thing is we have the Rosary! Pray it everyday and youll soon have: The Sign of the Cross, Apostles Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Fatima prayer, and Hail, Holy Queen memorized in no time.

The part thats complicated (or was to me) is the Creeds: The Nicine is the longer but its in three parts. Memorize each of the three sections individually so you dont get overwhelmed, then glue them together.

Once you got Nicene down Apostles seems easy, just takes a bit of thought not to mix and match lol.

But yea I still screw up occasionally, look around your church for lil pamphlets on How to Pray the Rosary and itll usually have all the Prayers and Mysterious on there and dont worry about having to take a peek at your cheat sheet once in awhile.
 
Redbaron998 said:
Dont worry about messing up prayers early in your Catholic life. I have been Catholic 3 years now (Tiber swim team Class of 07) and just recently have I FINALLY been able to get the Nicene Creed down in full.

I grew up in the Methodist church and we used the Apostles Creed in the service so i already knew that but I kept butchering the two toghether and would up up recieting the Niceostles Creed haha.

The great thing is we have the Rosary! Pray it everyday and youll soon have: The Sign of the Cross, Apostles Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Fatima prayer, and Hail, Holy Queen memorized in no time.

The part thats complicated (or was to me) is the Creeds: The Nicine is the longer but its in three parts. Memorize each of the three sections individually so you dont get overwhelmed, then glue them together.

Once you got Nicene down Apostles seems easy, just takes a bit of thought not to mix and match lol.

But yea I still screw up occasionally, look around your church for lil pamphlets on How to Pray the Rosary and itll usually have all the Prayers and Mysterious on there and dont worry about having to take a peek at your cheat sheet once in awhile.
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I was also a Methodist who converted in 1992 and I still do not know the Nicene Creed by heart. Fortunately here in the Philippines we say the Apostles Creed at Mass on Sundays which I do know.
 
I talked to an expert on meditation once who told me that the difference between Buddhist and Christian meditation was that the Buddhist pushed his way to the divine, whereas the Christian allowed himself to be pulled. Holy Scripture tells us that we don’t know how to pray as we ought. It is the attempt that counts.

Also, if you haven’t memorized how to pray the Rosary, there is nothing at all wrong with reading it as you go. I have been a Catholic since I was 17 (I’m 30 now) and the Rosary is a huge part of my spiritual life, and I still keep a cheat sheet in my wallet.

Cheers,
-MM-
 
I just started to pray the rosary this year and I’m a re-verted cradle Catholic. I never knew what prayers went where and certainly never knew the Fatima prayer or the “Hail Holy Queen”.

I’m about 5 months into praying the rosary each day now and I can finally pray it without “outside help”. Yes, I sometimes blunder and catch myself, and then start that one prayer over again.

What I did to learn the rosary is first go to this site.

hail-mary-rosaries.com/online-rosary.html

and prayed along as I read.

Then I became more confident in reciting the prayers and started to pray along with others on the internet through this site:

comepraytherosary.org/

I then realized that they are a bit too fast for me right now. I end up breathless at times because my prayer style is a little more deliberate than “theirs”… I also recite the first part of the prayers along with the priest. Also, I realized I could not concentrate on the mysteries while trying to keep up with the prayers. I intend to try this site again when I’m more practiced but I’m not there yet.

Now as for other prayers, I still blunder and stumble, even when I’m just talking to God in my own words. I’m glad to know that St Therese also had that problem! My mind seems to go in all directions sometimes and even I stop understanding what I mean (I tend to over-explain my thoughts). That’s when I stop, and apologize to God for my weird thought patterns, and invite the Holy Spirit to make my prayers more understandable when they reach up there.
 
One thing I have always loved about being Catholic is the abundance of Missals, prayerbooks, pamphlets, booklets, and etc. A lot of those you can find on a rack at your parish. There is nothing wrong with using them. I find that just saying them out loud, reading off of a sheet puts me in a prayerful mind and I can really focus on the words of the prayers.

It is ok to not be perfect. God is so happy that you are trying to pray to Him. Your prayers will be perfected by the Holy Spirit.

I am so glad you are joining the Church!!
 
Don’t worry about being ‘correct’ with your prayers. It doesn’t matter if you recite it in a monotone or if you accent different words to purvey meaning or if you mumble everything. It doesn’t matter ‘how’ you say it. What matters is that you pray from your heart. The Lord knows your heart, even before you get any words out. Worrying about it, repeating prayers, going back and starting over, are all signs of scrupulosity which is a religious form of OCD. This is to be avoided. I was able to combat my personal scrupulosity with a devotion to the Divine Mercy. This emphasises Trusting in the Lord, with its motto, ‘Jesus, I Trust In You’.

Sometimes with my prayers, my words seem pathetic and inadequate, so in addition, I ask the Lord make up for any deficiencies in my prayers, then I trust Him to do it.

As for the Rosary, a CD where you can follow along can be a big help when you are learning it. It takes some time to get it down so don’t worry if it doesn’t come easily right away. It took me months to figure out how to say one thing with my mouth and think another in my mind, and keep track of where I was and what prayer came next.
 
God always understands us, talking to Him is not like talking to people on earth 🙂 I sometimes have to deal with social and confidence issues too, and I used to be extremely shy, and sometimes still am. It helped me to remember that God knows our hearts perfectly and loves us perfectly, so no matter what we say to Him, as long as we pray with love, that is pleasing to Him. And love is a choice, not an emotion, so even if you feel nothing but distraction during prayer, it can still please God.

Longer prayers like the Rosary, they’re meant to assist us as we meditate on the life of Christ, events in the Bible, etc. Just try your best, and offer it to God, and He will accept any prayers you say 🙂 don’t worry about doing it perfectly, and if you mess up, just keep going.

God bless
 
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