How are prayers categorized?

[fakename]

I think there are mental and vocal prayers.

But vocal prayers imply mental prayers so even vocal prayers have something internal about them and mental prayers sometimes have something external about them too?

 

[Debra_C]

I think the usual way for categorizing prayer as far as the Catholic Church is concerned is prayers of blessing and adoration, prayers of petition, prayers of intercession, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of praise. See this excerpt from the CCC: scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c1a3.htm

I think there is little difference to God whether you pray silently (in thought alone) or vocalize them, though vocalizing can be important in the context of group or public prayer.

 

[trials]

The Church has identified the 4 main ways we can express our prayer as:

A - Adoration
C - Contrition (sorrow for sins)
T - Thanksgiving
S - Supplication (petition)

And the Church has also identified the 3 different types of prayer as:

vocal, eg. set vocal prayer such as Our Father
meditative, eg. Lectio Divina, meditation on Scripture
contemplative - the “loving gaze” between us and God

As you can see though, these are not clear-cut definitions, as in, our prayers when said naturally will probably incorporate many of these aspects. The Rosary for example is a vocal prayer, but at the same time invites us to meditate on episodes in Scripture, so both vocal and meditative. While all these types and methods have been identified, our prayer life is basically a relationship with God, so it will be like a rich tapestry of all these aspects woven together.