How to pray honestly

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I’m thinking about joining Auxilium Christianorum which is an association that provides spiritual protection given you say the prayers in their pamphlet. The prayers are quite long and very structured. I noticed when I pray with my heart, and not just my lips, prayers in general are more effective. I know when I am praying with my heart and not just my lips because when I pray with my heart it brings me to tears; it’s a feeling inside of me that is difficult to describe. I try to keep my prayers spontaneous because those are the ones that feel most genuine to me. However, these prayers in Auxilium Christinorum are quite long and structured and it is very difficult to pray these prayers with my heart. Instead, I feel like I’m just going through the motions and it feels like a lie to me. Now I understand what the protestants mean when they say the Catholic Church is too rigid, because I have to admit it is true that there is a certain rigidity to these prayers that seems to stifle spontaneity, which ultimately stifles authenticity. I’ve had similar problems with the structured prayers at mass.

Another way to look at this is through a Freudian lens. The superego is the voice inside your mind that bosses you around and tells you what to do. It seems like most people tend to go about their life following their superego, or a sense of “duty”. Same thing with saying these prayers. If your saying them because your superego tells you too (instead of your Will) then in a way you are being disingenuous.
So my question is do prayers still work even if they feel disingenuous and like a lie? I’ve only on rare occasions been able to pray a structured prayer with my heart it’s not easy and seems to only happen by the grace of God. I really want to do these Auxilium Christianorum prayers, but I want to do them honestly and candidly.

Maybe I’m going about this all wrong. I just don’t know.
 
Firstly spiritual protection is provided by God and we can ask the Virgin Mary to intercede for us.
Secondly if a group you are considering joining has practices that don’t meld with you, perhaps discern if it is right for you.

This group is not the entire church, it is a devotion, Much like the Rosary.
The Two main ways of the Church are Mass, followed by the liturgy of the hours. Anything else is a devotion to which no one is bound. As far as the liturgy of the hours, only religious are bound to it
 
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Yes I didn’t mean that the association provides spiritual protection. I meant God provides it through the intercessory prayers of the association.
 
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God provides it without specific adherence to these associations.

Do you pray the Rosary or parts of it
 
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I don’t pray the rosary regularly due to the reasons listed above. (It’s difficult for me to do it candidly) I want to start praying the rosary but it is difficult. That being said I have prayed the rosary genuinely once but it seemed like a very rare occasion.
 
In my opinion, when we feel bound by devotions that are not mandatory to the point where they give us anxiety if we don’t do them, I think we should re think our prayer life. The goal of prayer is connection with God, not a checklist. I know it’s way easier said than done, and my prayer life is definitely not how it ought to be.
God bless
 
If spontaneous prayer works for you stick with it.
I would add an Our Father, an Hail Mary and a glory be.

And Mass of course

There is a prayer for spiritual protection called the St Michael Prayer. I will tag @St.Bede in to copy and paste that prayer for you
 
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As one who also is saying the Auxilium Christianorum prayers, I would suggest that if this form of prayer doesn’t feel “right” to you, then maybe you should find another prayer - perhaps a shorter or less formal one - and say that regularly instead. You can ask God for his protection as part of your shorter or less formal prayer.

The AC prayers are indeed quite long, and traditional. I find those types of prayers to be powerful prayers myself, but they’re not magic spells and we are not required to use those prayer words to make a powerful prayer or gain the protection of God.

The best prayer you could make would be to attend Mass every day and receive Holy Communion at as many Masses as you can.
And then just pray daily in whatever way works for you to feel comfortable and actually do it daily/ regularly.
 
I just pray Our Fathers but with the objective in my mind and heart.
When done deeply it will also bring me to tears.

I start off by devoting Our Fathers to giving thanks and showing gratitude.
I then devote my prayers to asking for forgiveness.
Then finally I pray for anything I need.
 
FYI one of the requirements (not bound under the pain of sin) of Auxilium Christianorum is a daily rosary.
 
Yep I’m going to have to start doing that.
 
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johnz123 said:
these prayers in Auxilium Christinorum are quite long and structured and it is very difficult to pray these prayers with my heart.
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For praying the rosary with ones heart I recommend finding a scriptural rosary via a Google search or buying Richard Rooney S.J.'s Let’s pray (not just say) the Rosary. The latter has for each mystery ten sentences that make up the mysteries story in a more “story-telling” manner than a scriptural rosary.

Either one of these will help you significantly in praying the rosary non mechanically.
 
Praying honestly is really rooted in the disposition of the heart… Structured prayers are meant to just guide you through it but before you pick any book or any resources to aid your prayer, its always good to just spend a few minutes to quieten yourself and invoke the holy spirit.

I tend to move from different prayer methods - structured to spontaneous, scriptural to spiritual because at the end of the day its all about intention and cultivating a personal and more intimate relationship with our Lord.

That’s not to say I dont have any structure - I still have my daily prayer norms - i.e. the rosary, adoration visits, but I vary it so its more refreshing for me.

Again, all bores down to the intention. And sometimes its not about just tending to my own supplications. I also allow myself to let God talk to me through the daily gospels and it may bear no bearing on my own struggles - sometimes its nice to have “holy distractions” so I can just pause and not think of my own daily worries for just a few minutes and hang out with God and see what he’s upto in his gospels - if that make sense 😉
 
I pray the little office of the Virgin Mary everyday and I often," zone out."

I know in my heart it’s not good, but I also know that it shows that I care.
 
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read your OP was ARRR prayer:
Acknowledge, Relate, Receive, Respond.

Fr. Scott Traynor appears to be taking the lead in teaching this, to laymen as well as to seminarians during their formation:


But I’ve come across it in a lot of places, including Fr. Mike Schmitz:


And it definitely has changed my experience of prayer.
 
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Something that really changed how I pray structured prayer was praying the Litany of Humility.

It has parts like this:
From the desire of being praised… Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes… Deliver me, Jesus.

At first, this didn’t make a lot of sense. What was wrong with wanting to be praised? With fearing suffering rebukes? But after praying this for a while, it started to sink in. Things like this were not what we were supposed to be doing. To act for the purpose of being praised or to avoid being rebuked was to not act out of love.

So with all those items (about 20) in the LoH, I really learned a lot. And I would not have have learned them of I hadn’t stuck with it.

Even if you don’t feel the same when you are praying structured prayers–and no one should limit themselves to structured prayers–people can get a lot of good out of them. I think they just have to be prayed differently than unstructured prayers.

It may be like learning to cook. Someone cooks by fooling around and experimenting, and that is good, but when they take a structured cooking class, they end up learning different things they might otherwise not have.
 
It may be like learning to cook. Someone cooks by fooling around and experimenting, and that is good, but when they take a structured cooking class, they end up learning different things they might otherwise not have.
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That’s a great way of putting it.
 
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