Do you have your own prayer language?

[sinnerdexter]

I struggle praying daily.

I prefer not to use formal prayer time like going into the room, kneel, and recite ready made prayers. I don’t want to stick with one way of praying.

Is it OK to use my own prayer language?

I believe that prayer is a relationship, not a fixed set of things to do imposed upon me by other people.

How about you? Are you having difficulty praying daily?
Do you have your own prayer language?
Please share it with us.

 

[BintuluChuchGuy]

Well,I do sometimes struggle to pray daily.I simply dont have the time,but I make sure I say my morning and night prayer.But now I say a decade of the Rosary.

If you mean prayer language as mean talking using your own words to God,then its fine,its good actually.Jesus wants to be not only a part of your prayer life,but your whole life.You can talk to him about your problems and the situations you’re in,and he’s there ready to listen.
Ready made prayers such as Our Father,Hail Mary n Glory Be,are prayers when you just dont have the words to say.But its still important.

Its sometimes good to learn a prayer in another language such as Latin.That way we mean what we say when praying.
God bless you this Lent.

 

[JRKH]

I struggle praying daily.

I prefer not to use formal prayer time like going into the room, kneel, and recite ready made prayers. I don’t want to stick with one way of praying.

Is it OK to use my own prayer language?

I believe that prayer is a relationship, not a fixed set of things to do imposed upon me by other people.

How about you? Are you having difficulty praying daily?
Do you have your own prayer language?
Please share it with us.

I do have trouble praying regularly and yes I’d say I have “my own prayer language”.

Mostly my prayers seem to be little bits of “thanks” during the day, and also quick requests for aid when I’m tempted.
This is not to say that I don’t use formal prayer at times. I pray the Rosary occasionally - not as often as perhaps I should - and I have a small “chaplet” of beads that I use for a personal set of devotions. I also have set, formal, prayers that I say before and after mass.

My Thanksgivng Prayer goes:
*Almighty Father, thank you for this glorious day, for all the blessings you have bestowed on us, and the opportunity to serve you. *

When I need help I might pray:
*Father: I am a poor, and inconstant servant. I feel unworthy to seek your favor, but look to your mercy and love as a child seeks his parents arms. *
and then add my plight. Or I might simply say:
“Heavenly Father help me”

When I am Sorely temped to some sinful habit or thought, I pray:
“Take me to the foot of the Cross…” where I visualize the dirt and mud and sweat and blood and pain of the scene. Of what Christ suffered for me . I then ask God to help me carry my cross so that I might lighten His load just the tiniest bit.

Formal Prayer, scripture and spiritual reading etc. are all good ways to “set the stage” for deeper prayer. Such things calm us, and put us in a receptive frame of mind for conversing with God. They are especially good when we are just strting out, or when things are difficult and we are distracted by worldy cares.
But -
Don’t be afraid to just talk to God as you would a friend or special confidant. He knows everything already, but it helps us to articulate it and to open channels for His helping Grace.

Peace
James

 

[Dorothy]

There are many ways to prayer, and using your own words to talk to the Lord is one of them, and a very good way to pray.

Remember that it is also good to pray “ready-made” prayers, as long as we are thinking of what we are saying, and praying from the heart. Also, meditating on different Scripture verses and how the Lord is speaking to you through them is another way to pray.

We can receive many blessings by learning different ways to pray.

 

[InLight247]

Nowadays, most people believe in balanced meals - eat variety of food to nourish our body.
I like to practice in a similar manner to do with prayers.

I have my set of formal daily devotions such as Rosaries, St. Bridget’s prayers. Rosary is to walk through Jesus’ whole life from incarnation to resurrection. The Rosary is very rich. It includes thanksgiving, asking for forgiveness, asking for Holy Mother’s intercession, praising and glorifying God, etc. I just have to mention my intention either in the beginning or at the end, the rest of the time is to reflect Jesus’ life and give him thanks and praises (when we say Hail Mary, Mary always directs us to her son Jesus). So is the St. Bridget’s prayer. This prayer literally experiences Jesus’ Passion in a vivid and brutal way. It is good for the soul.

I also talk to God with my own words, that is an intimate conversation between friends, between Father and daughter, between the Savior and the sinner. I pour out my heart and He listens, and I try to listen to Him. I can also just sit with Jesus, say nothing, simply enjoy our togetherness. I consider all these as my prayer languages and I enjoy them all.

 

[NPC]

I struggle praying daily.

I prefer not to use formal prayer time like going into the room, kneel, and recite ready made prayers. I don’t want to stick with one way of praying.

Is it OK to use my own prayer language?

I believe that prayer is a relationship, not a fixed set of things to do imposed upon me by other people.

How about you? Are you having difficulty praying daily?
Do you have your own prayer language?
Please share it with us.

I think we all need formal prayer to an extent (more or less for each person), and of course the greatest “formal prayer” we have is the Holy Mass. This is one such prayer that we cannot do without as Catholics, nor should we want to be without given the gifts and graces which flow from the Holy Sacrifice. So if you would like to have some bit of formal prayer each day, the Mass is what I’d recommend!

As for other prayers that you like to offer during the day, it depends what works for you. I generally have a mixture of formal prayers and my own “improvisations”. I think it’s good to try to make oneself aware of God’s presence throughout the day by thanking Him for various things, or as JRKH said, to petition God for help when tempted. Saint Patrick wrote that he would say “Thanks be to God” hundreds of times per day. I often do the same (probably not as frequently as Patrick did though) - even for little things like crossing the road safely, narrowly avoiding a heavy rainshower, or just making it on time for the bus!

As for my formal prayer: I try to pray Compline every night. I like the structure of it, especially when I give myself the time to pray the psalms prayerfully! I suppose the formality of Compline is nice because, similar to the Mass, it is being prayed in the same way by countless persons around the globe as well as having been prayed by generations of people before us - one could see it as a concrete expression of the Communion of Saints. However, I always pray the individual psalms for different intentions - normally the first psalm is for the Church, the Pope and his intentions for the month; the second is for those for whom I’ve promised to pray; the third is for my own intentions. Having thought about the intentions before starting to pray, I am often amazed at how the psalms really speak to me - I find they are frequently relevant to the various intentions, which is nice.

As Dorothy said, it is good to use “ready-made” prayers as long as we’re thinking about what we’re saying…vain repetitions don’t work on God as we know, but that does not mean that repetitive prayer is bad: it isn’t. It is indeed what is in your heart that counts. You could try mixing the two - similar to what I do with the Compline psalms - it would work with the Rosary too, applying a specific intention to each decade or something like that.

Overall, though, while it’s good to pray in a way in which you are able to pray, I think it is important - even essential - to have a balance between formal and personal prayer.

 

[Monica4316]

‘ready made’ prayers aren’t necessarily bad they can be very helpful… especially when we don’t know how to pray or what to pray for. For example, the Our Father is Jesus’ own prayer, it is His words and the Hail Mary contains the words of an Archangel and St Elizabeth inspired by the Holy Spirit…

I say both ‘ready made’ prayers and my own words

God bless

 

[CatofAlexandria]

I have my own prayer language in that, sometimes, I don’t say any words. I just see mental pictures, think thoughts of thankfulness, or imagine God’s hands on my shoulder or wrapped around me. Sometimes there’s nothing to say except “I feel.” I think that that’s okay. That’s one reason that I became a Catholic: because the Catholic Church embraces all sincere forms of prayer.

 

[sinnerdexter]

If you mean prayer language as mean talking using your own words to God,then its fine,its good actually.

I do understand the Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. But what I meant by “prayer language” is something like CatofAlexandria doing. For example, a gardener does her gardening every morning. And when she do, she imagine God beside her. Surrounded by the fresh air and the beauty of the flowers around her, she spends time with Him. As she dirty her hands with the soil of the earth, she’s blessed and feel so refreshed each morning. That’s what i mean by a prayer language.

So, do you have your own prayer language? Can you share it here?

By the way, thank you for sharing your personal prayers (using your own words). I hope people will keep on sharing prayers.

 

[JRKH]

I do understand the Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. But what I meant by “prayer language” is something like CatofAlexandria doing. For example, a gardener does her gardening every morning. And when she do, she imagine God beside her. Surrounded by the fresh air and the beauty of the flowers around her, she spends time with Him. As she dirty her hands with the soil of the earth, she’s blessed and feel so refreshed each morning. That’s what i mean by a prayer language.

So, do you have your own prayer language? Can you share it here?

By the way, thank you for sharing your personal prayers (using your own words). I hope people will keep on sharing prayers.

Well - Yes and I think that Cat says it quite well. I also like your example above.
This is probably the sort of thing that most of us were getting at too - Keeping God with us during the day.
I can’t say that I have a “prayer language” in this sense, other than what you and Cat describe. I guess the “image” I use most is when I’m tempted and ask God to take me to the foot of the cross. I have very strong images at that time. Not of the Corpus on the Cross so much as the cross entering the ground which is muddy and bloody. I can hear the crowd mumbling, and I can look up at His feet, dirty and stained with blood and sweat. I never try to look past his feet for I cannot bear it.

I can say that I consider my time spent on CAF to be “prayer time” though I suspect I need more “meditation” time and less “posting” time.

Peace
James

 

[puzzleannie]

I struggle praying daily.

I prefer not to use formal prayer time like going into the room, kneel, and recite ready made prayers. I don’t want to stick with one way of praying.

Is it OK to use my own prayer language?

I believe that prayer is a relationship, not a fixed set of things to do imposed upon me by other people.

How about you? Are you having difficulty praying daily?
Do you have your own prayer language?
Please share it with us.

recited common prayers with a common language are not imposed by people, but are words revealed in scripture–the Our Father, Hail Mary, psalms, Glory Be etc., or are derived from scripture by meditation on the mysteries revealed there. I am not sure I understand your question but would hope everyone even those who begin with formal prayer moves eventually to interior mental prayer and even contemplation. Postures are not imposed either but all–sitting, kneeling, prostration, standing even lying down, have their place and are hallowed by Christian tradition.

Not sure of what private prayer language is other than mental prayer as Terese of Jesus describes it, unless you mean tongues, which, like infused contemplation, is a gift from God, not something we generate by our own actions or methods.

My only other suggestion, since you ask, is that you begin by stating you are having difficulty in prayer. That being the case I suggest you look at the long Christian prayer tradition as schooling in prayer by the spiritual masters, not as something imposed by you, and be willing in humility to be guided by their experience, especially by those who are saints. Among those various traditions from those directors you will surely find a manner of disposing your heart and mind to God’s will that works better than what you do now. Everyone will benefit by reading the last section of the CCC on prayer and the battle of prayer.

 

[alitaptap]

recited common prayers with a common language are not imposed by people, but are words revealed in scripture–the Our Father, Hail Mary, psalms, Glory Be etc., or are derived from scripture by meditation on the mysteries revealed there.

Why Catholics don’t pray to St. Judas Iscariot?

 

[NPC]

Why Catholics don’t pray to St. Judas Iscariot?

St Judas Iscariot?? That’s news to me…certainly not consistent with the Apostolic Tradition, nor is he included in the Canon of the Mass as the other Apostles are.

Unless you’re talking about St Jude, Apostle and brother of James - patron saint of hopeless causes.

 

[alitaptap]

St Judas Iscariot?? That’s news to me…certainly not consistent with the Apostolic Tradition, nor is he included in the Canon of the Mass as the other Apostles are.

Unless you’re talking about St Jude, Apostle and brother of James - patron saint of hopeless causes.

I am talking about Judas Iscariot

 

[JRKH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alitaptap
Why Catholics don’t pray to St. Judas Iscariot?

St Judas Iscariot?? That’s news to me…certainly not consistent with the Apostolic Tradition, nor is he included in the Canon of the Mass as the other Apostles are.

Unless you’re talking about St Jude, Apostle and brother of James - patron saint of hopeless causes.

I am talking about Judas Iscariot

I’m sure that NPC’s comment was based on your refering to Judas as St (Saint) Judas Iscariot.

Since Judas is recorded as the one who betrayed Jesus and later committed suicide over the act he has never been refered as a “Saint”.
Although we cannot know the ultimate fate of anyone at death, that is, we cannot be sure he went to hell, the odds are that he did.
Therefore no one "prays to "St. Judas Iscariot because there is no such person in the canon of Saints.

Peace
James