Embarrassed that I don't know how to pray

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No, I’m not new to the Catholic faith. I was raised a Catholic and turned away as a young adult. And sort of forgot about God for over 20 years .At the moment I’m facing a lot of struggles and this has made me turn to God. During my youth I remember a lot of the prayers, but really it was just reciting them, without really even thinking about it. Since deciding to come home I started to pray and ask God to help me and my family , but since browsing through this forum I realise I’m probably going about it the wrong way.
Are we not supposed to pray directly to Mary? I was reading we can ask her to pray for us , but I always used to pray to her . Also in my youth I used to just recite the rosary and now I read we are meant to meditate on the mysteries. I’m a bit lost and if someone can help me out , it would be appreciated.
 
Mary is the mother of God. Pray to her for her intercession to help you become closer to Christ!

For me when I pray the rosary it REALLY helps to meditate on the words that I pray. To understand what they mean for me and pray to God for the gift of understanding of prayer. For instance, for the “Our Father” prayer… “Give us this day our daily bread”. I think in prayer to God asking to receive the gifts for that particular day that we receive from the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Its like rather than grabbing the cookie from the cookie jar from your parents and demanding to get it, you ask in prayer for the cookie (spiritual gifts, talents, etc…) and you with a humble heart are there ready to receive it…

You’ve probably heard a priest or a sister tell you to live a “prayerful life”? Yes?
This can also mean being silent in prayer praying the rosary and also just thinking about God living your daily life at ANY time. Like for me, sometimes I’m having a bad day for some reason, and I start praying the rosary to myself over and over and I “pray without ceasing” as they say and then suddenly I feel a joy, inner peace and a humble heart! So yeah, even say when you’re: playing basketball, studying in school, working at a job, in church celebrating God’s Love, ANYWHERE and you’re thinking about God and praying, then you can say you’re living a prayerful life! You’ll notice that as you advance in prayer and practice it in your daily life, over time, at least for my personal experience, I experience a joy that cannot be explained and it has remarkable effects in my life!
 
lifelessons said:
No, I’m not new to the Catholic faith. I was raised a Catholic and turned away as a young adult. And sort of forgot about God for over 20 years .At the moment I’m facing a lot of struggles and this has made me turn to God. During my youth I remember a lot of the prayers, but really it was just reciting them, without really even thinking about it. Since deciding to come home I started to pray and ask God to help me and my family , but since browsing through this forum I realise I’m probably going about it the wrong way.
Are we not supposed to pray directly to Mary? I was reading we can ask her to pray for us , but I always used to pray to her . Also in my youth I used to just recite the rosary and now I read we are meant to meditate on the mysteries. I’m a bit lost and if someone can help me out , it would be appreciated.
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Pray the rosary. Forget the rest. There is a fella here that has the logo: “I know nothing that cannot be accomplished through the rosary” from Sister Lucia.
You are IN THE GOOD WAY. You do not like to meditate the mysteries. Dont do that. I cannot do it either and I pray the rosary (15 mysteries). Oh! I realize that now it is 20 mysteries.
Do not complicate, simplify. God is simple.
 
Hi
I just talk to God and tell him things as and when using my own words and my own emotions and sometimes he just gets the emotion when words aren’t there.

Prayer is about listening to God.

People will have their own ways that work for them and you will get a varied response on here that hopefully wont confuse you too much.

When the politics of prayer is just too confusing for me I use hymns.

Set prayers and hymns helps people to focus but he wants to know what is on your heart too from you. If you know the Lords Prayer and I suspect you do since you say been RC long enough. Simply start with that. Taking your own time with each line and using it to think of your own situations. Take it step by step and just simply share with God, don’t be worried by the tears etc, just be completely you with God.
 
There are many ways to pray. When I recite the prayers I learned as a child I try to think of the meaning of the words I’m saying. I have a lot of trouble staying focused when reciting prayers. But remember - praying is talking with God. Notice I said “with” not “to”. I like to read scripture and then sit quietly for awhile. I tell God what I got out of the passage and then sit quietly waiting for him to tell me about it. Today I read the second feeding of the multitudes in Mark. I’ve always thought it beautiful to realize that God can take the little bit I have to offer and make it more than enough for the occasion. Today, I was worrying about whether I was doing well the things I feel called to do for Him. My thoughts took a different direction with the story. What struck me today was that Jesus saw that the people didn’t have what they need, so He felt compassion for them and gave them what they needed to stay strong on the way home. If I stay open to His guidance and just trust Him He will give me what I need and more. I think that was God’s message for me today.
 
St. Paul himself tells us that the Holy Spirit Himself will intercede in our prayers which are sometimes groaning without words to express what is in the depths of our hearts. Ask Our Lord to help you express yourself, and help you listen to what He is saying to you in response. In other words, you needn’t get hung up on “just the right way to pray.”

The traditional prayers are beautiful, though, and any Catholic bookstore (brick-and-mortar, or online,) have a lot of books to offer.

Sure, you can pray directly to Mary: She will always point you, lead you, nudge you, or a combination thereof, to Her Divine Son, and asking her help is one of the most powerful things you can do.

Reading Scripture prayerfully and meditatively is a wonderful experience in prayer as well. Select a short passage from the Gospels, then put yourself mentally in the presence of God. Choose a comfortable spot in which to read, I like to pretend I’m a young child about to hear a story told to me by my father, and then read the passage slowly, if you have a place where you are undisturbed, go ahead and read it out loud. Savor the words and ideas as if you were enjoying a delectable meal. Listen carefully to what God is saying in that passage. Put the Bible aside, and close your eyes, and think carefully. Some thought or phrase may jump out at you. Stay with that idea in thought for a little while, but don’t force matters. End the session with a “thank you” of some sort to God for sharing this with you, and mark the passage.

Later in the day, go back and reread the same passage, and then think back over your day. Did your awareness of this passage express itself somehow in your daily life? Meditate a little while on that, and end this time with a little conversation with God thanking Him once again for bringing this to your attention, perhaps expressing a hope that what you’ve thought about will bring you peace, greater faith, more action, you name it, that seems to fit the idea and what you’ve been able to extract from it.

May God bless your efforts richly! He does, you know, appreciate any attempts we make, and He wants His children to approach Him in joy, gratitude, and confidence.
 
Dear Brother,
What is prayer ? Its just like talking to our Father, the one who created us and is Almighty God. Like a child would bring his requests, pleadings and pour out his heart to his father, similarly should we bring our requests , talk heart to heart with our Heavenly Father. He already knows our feelings, yet longs to hear children’s voices.
When Apostles asked Jesus, how should they pray. Jesus replied :
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“‘Father,[a]
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.* … and so on.**

Notice , It begins with Our Father, It directly reminds us of a personal relationship we have with Lord. Its best to talk personal to Lord , straight from the heart rather than use big or prefabricated sentences.

You can read the complete Bible passage on prayer:
biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+11&version=NIV

Talk to Him today.He knows you by name, He made you.:)*
 
Here’s the way my grandmother would put it.

“Pray as if God is
everybody in the world who
LOVES YOU !!!”

:blessyou:
 
Learn to speak from your Heart of Hearts the very center of your being to Jesus Christ. And walk with Him daily. The Lord created the world and said it was “Good.” Remember the Lord in your good times and He will never foget you in the bad times. Don’t try to make God conform to what you think will make you happy. Conform yourself to God’s Will and you will be happy. The Lord will provide. Then the Mysteries of Faith will be revealed by God to you; but you must be patient, kind, courageous, and above all obedient.
Code: 
  By sharing the good times in your life with God and answering His invitations to life abundantly  you will participate in Jesus Christ's Victory for Eternity.  God has a Plan and we all are called but few answer.    One can learn to make life a prayer.  God will give you graces that will give you whatever you need to make your life one big Blessing.  Then one day you will go to sleep and wake up within the Kindness & Patience of Jesus Christ. You will enter the Kingdom and may even do so in this life just as St. John tells us in his account:  Revelation 1-9
9 I John, your brother and your partner in tribulation, and in the kingdom, and patience in Christ Jesus, was in the island, which is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus.

BP
 
I think it may be good to have a balance of formal prayer and conversation. A conversation could be intimate and lead to an “unceasing” prayer that carry’s you through the day, but should a dark night come, obedience and will may be what is needed to get you through. Samson
 
I pray that God will grant us the strength to bear our burdens… and the faith to know our prayers are always heard and answered.

I just joined this forum because I was in a situation that called for prayer and found this site. In the course of reciting a novena to Mary (whom we ask to appeal to God on our behalf, as the Mother of His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ), I realized that all the prayers of my life had been answered, I just hadn’t been paying attention- it brought me back to my faith.

So ask Mary for her help through the Rosary or even a Novena (which you can pray once a day for nine days or once an hour for nine hours- I set a timer to help me and I meditate on my purpose in prayer during the hours)

Novena of the Miraculous Medal

O Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Mother of Our Lord Jesus and our Mother,
penetrated with the most lively confidence in your all-powerful and never-failing intercession, manifested so often through the Miraculous Medal,
we, your loving and trustful children, implore you to obtain for us the graces and favors we ask during this novena, if they be beneficial to our immortal souls, and the souls for whom we pray.
(Here form your petition)

You know, O Mary, how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of your Son who hates iniquity.
Obtain for us then a deep hatred of sin and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone so that our every thought, word and deed may tend to His greater glory.

Obtain for us also a spirit of prayer and self-denial that we may recover by penance what we have lost by sin and at length attain to that blessed abode where you are the Queen of angels and of men.

Amen.

Read more: ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/MiraculousMedal.htm#ixzz1m6DLoT53
 
Also, you can get a Miraculous Medal through your church supply store (they usually sell to the public as well as churches)

I will pray for you and your troubles.
 
In general, I don’t believe there is a right and wrong way to pray. There are certain rituals and formats to prayers, but any prayer that helps you form a closer relationship with God and live in His grace is a good prayer.

This will sound like a shameless plug, but my book covers everything you need to pray the rosary effectively. It steps through the power and importance of the rosary, the prayers involved, and meditations for each mytery. Please see my signature for a link to buy the book.
 
How to Pray

Is how to pray really a question, do, we search for lord prayers, well if we do we always end with finding The Lords Prayer and if there is one lords prayer out there, the Lords Prayer is one we would use when asking “how to pray”. so what is the lords prayer is it the best of Lord prayers because it brings us all comfort, I can hear myself saying “help me lords prayer”.

So is how to pray more of a individual decision, depending to what we need from our Lord,and what is the lords prayer what does it stand for, it’s different to each and all of us. For me it’s help me lords prayer and help me to help others.

I got this from a website which as a lovely image with the words of The Lords Prayer

insetdesigns.com/lord_prayer.html

hope this helps, I know it does for me:):)🙂
God Bless
Tyrone
 
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