Meaningful prayer

[niklovely]

How are we meant to pray? Are we supposed to pray for what we think we need and want? Is it supposed to be introduced with a certain prayer and ended with a different prayer? What is meaningful prayer?

I recently discovered the Novena prayers and it has provided me with a good structure on my prayers. I feel as though I have been doing it wrong all along, In some sort of way treating God as a vending machine.

 

[Shakuhachi]

Open your heart. Maybe write God a letter. I have a journal but perhaps you don’t want a written record of your prayer. Then shred it.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

How are we meant to pray?

I’ll try answering this first question.

I’ve liked reading then Cardinal Ratzinger’s book Jesus of Nazareth. In chapter 5 he explains the Our Father. Here’s a brief description of part of it from a Catholic Culture .org article:

Jesus says through Matthew’s gospel that the Father, far more than human parents with their own children, will “give good things to those who ask him,” (Mt 5:44-45) and in Luke He clearly states that these “good things” are the Holy Spirit (Lk 11:13). Benedict concludes:

This means that the gift of God is God himself. The “good things” that he gives us are himself. This reveals in a surprising way what prayer is really all about: It is not about this or that, but about God’s desire to offer us the gift of himself—that is the gift of all gifts, the “one thing necessary.”

The “Our Father” according to Benedict | Catholic Culture

 

[Brian_K]

Prayer is “lifting the mind and heart to God.” The fact that you want to communicate with God and want Him to communicate to you is a grace in and of itself. I would suggest allowing that interior movement more and varied free reign, at various parts of the day, in different moods. If you’re distracted, feel free to ask, “God, why am I so distracted?!”

Some of my most powerful moments of prayer were my least pious. But that’s when I was the most real. And it wasn’t always bad. Once it was a particularly beautiful morning, having coffee on my porch and appreciating the way the morning sun was hitting the clouds, and all I could say was, “I love it when You do that!”

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

You talk to Him in all sincerity, warts and all.
And then you listen. Quiet your heart and mind . Read the Scriptures, which is how He speaks to us.
Learn everything you can about Him in the Bible and in competent spiritual writing.
And hold fast to the sacraments.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

In a symbolic sense.
You practice quiet and study of the scriptures and competent spiritual books and in that way, you let God talk to you.