How should we pray for others?

[Elzee]

How can saying an ‘Our Father’ or a ‘Hail Mary’ or even a rosary for someone ‘work’ since the prayer may not relate directly to what we are praying about? Should we instead say our own specific, personal prayer for the person in need? Does it matter? Are we simply ‘offering up’ these predefined prayers with the intention of our heart? This has always confused me and I would like to be able to explain it better to my non-Catholic friends who are confused about the different ways Catholics pray.

 

[Peggy_Frye]

Prayer is simply the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God (CCC 2259). It’s not a complicated set of formulas where unless specific words or requests are made, God doesn’t hear us. In fact, scripture tells us that we don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and intercedes for us with “sighs too deep for words”. And the one who searches hearts knows what the intention of the Spirit is, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will (Romans 8:26-27, Ephesians 6:18). There isn’t only one method of prayer. What makes a prayer efficacious is the attitude of the heart (CCC 2559).

I find it interesting that many non-Catholics will pray the Psalms (or other scripture passages), but criticize Catholics for praying a scriptural prayer like the Our Father or the Hail Mary. To help your non-Catholic friends see the spiritual value of praying the Our Father or the Hail Mary, perhaps you can start with a simple explanation like “the Our Father is a prayer of communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ (read 2777-2802)CCC, and the Hail Mary is a prayer with Mary, to magnify with her the great things the Lord has done for her. It’s a Gospel prayer, centered on the mystery of the Incarnation. (CCC 2781, 2682). And what could be more Biblical than that?” For a more detailed explanation click here.