Prayer problems

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lance
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lance

Guest
Is anyone else having trouble praying? I say prayers and I tell God how wonderful He is, thank Him for all that I have, ask for blessings and other things and then I am done and it is only a minute or two. I know it should be longer but I don’t know what else to say so I do the Rosary. I just think I should be able to talk to God for more than 2 minutes with out running out of things to say. Any suggestions?:confused:
 
I have similar problems. A couple of years ago, after hearing in the gospel the story of the “unjust judge” and how the widow kept asking for justice until she finally got it, I started a notebook of prayer requests. The requests are all intercessions for other people. I kind of recite these requests to Our Almighty Father each day also until I observe that the request is answered. I know that He remembers them from day to day, so it mostly serves as a way for me to make myself available as a vehicle for his answers to their needs. Hopefully, I’m learning more about how to serve him daily through it in addition to the sacrifice of spending the time to communicate them to Him. Then as I cross off the requests as they are answered, I give thanks for the answers (more time in prayer!)

Hope that helps!
 
Lance,

I would recommend you add some bible reading to your pray activity. Pray and meditate on the passage.
 
well, now you have met the worst person when it comes to praying.
You got to just make yourself find a quite time and place and keep praying, something like the rosary is really the best way to go, because that will lead to other prayers, and if you have the stuffin to do a complete rosary (all 4 sets of mysteries) then you will be at least an hour in your paryers… good luck, and I need to go and practice what i preach… 👍
 
Prayer is a conversation with God. One way conversation is not a prayer at all… It is not easy to do but please try to spend time listening to God. You might want to start with a Gospel passage, perhaps the one read at Daily Mass that day. Read it over a couple of times. Read it once more slowly. See if anything stands out for you, can you see something there that has relevance for your life? Then spend some time just listening. There may be something in the passage the Lord wants you to take special notice of.

It does not have to be the Gospel or even the Bible, though certainly a good choice, you could chose some other spiritual reading St Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of the Child Jesus. (all great Carmellite Saints, my personal bias).

I hope this gives you some ideas
 
Why not try speaking to him like a Father? Tell Him your worries, concerns. Ask Him questions, start topics. Who says prayer needs to be stilted or repetitous? We don’t always have to ask Him for things either. Sometimes I like to just talk to Him and thank Him for the butterflies I saw that day, or for revealing to me something I needed to see. We are, after all supposed to be like children in our approach, right? Sometimes my best prayers are through my conversations with God.
 
Something I always do when I pray is ask forgiveness for the sins of which I’m conscious. I know that’s what confession is for, but somehow I feel I should be mentioning them to God directly as well(probably my vague Protestant childhood breaking through again!:o ). I also pray intercessory prayers for everyone I know who is going through any kind of rough patch.
 
Dear Lance, here are some more thoughts:
  • Are there any areas of your life where you need God’s forgiveness? You can ask Him.
  • Do you have any special intentions for yourself to bring to God (for instance, help with your prayer)?
  • Do you have any special intentions for anyone else to bring to God?
  • There may be ill or suffering people in your life to pray for; if not, check out the news, there are plenty. They need your prayers desparately.
  • Do you have friends, acquaintences or relatives who have died? They need your prayers as well.
  • The clergy, those in religious life, those in lay ministry and missionaries need your prayers.
  • Those who are near death need your prayers.
I think you get the idea. If you prefer written prayers, you can find the classics with a Google search. There are many good books by Catholics on how to pray, I’m certain you will get many good recommendations (and other good advice) from other folks on this forum.

Please don’t worry or give up, but instead persist in your prayers. God hears you and will come to your assistance.
 
T.A.Stobie:
Lance,

I would recommend you add some bible reading to your pray activity. Pray and meditate on the passage.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I think this is a great idea. All of the other replys have been very helpful to me and I hope to others who may be having problems with prayer. Again thanks to all and lets keep this thread going for a while. 🙂
 
40.png
Trinitatem:
Why not try speaking to him like a Father? Tell Him your worries, concerns. Ask Him questions, start topics.
Click to expand...
This is good advice. Talk to Him as you would your best friend. When I first returned to the faith, I bought a “How to Pray Book” (not the name but something like that) by Fr. Lovasik. I have another one (I think Romano Guardini) and these two books were excellent for teaching me to pray. Because even though I had been raised Catholic, I was never taught exactly how to pray, and ended up “dropping out” of the faith (and all religion) for about 25 years.

The two books mentioned above really got me going in prayer though, and regular visits to the Adoration Chapel have improved my prayer life immensely.

JELane
 
space ghost:
well, now you have met the worst person when it comes to praying.
You got to just make yourself find a quite time and place and keep praying, something like the rosary is really the best way to go, because that will lead to other prayers, and if you have the stuffin to do a complete rosary (all 4 sets of mysteries) then you will be at least an hour in your paryers… good luck, and I need to go and practice what i preach… 👍
Click to expand...
Spaceghost, I like that! It is so true and if I might add “offering up” your work no matter what you do…just some thoughts.🙂
 
Lance,

Why does a prayer have to be long?

The first prayer I ever said went like this; One day I asked a woman I know how it was going. She said her little grandson was seriously sick. I listened to her story and when she was done, I said to her, and I don’t know why because, at that time I was not a religious man, I said, “I’ll say a little prayer for him.” And I did. I prayed, to my self, “Dear God, please make that little boy better.”

A few days later I saw the woman and she rushed up to me to tell me her grandson was better, in fact, healed. Then she cried.

I know that it was not my prayer alone that cured that little boy, but a whole lot of prayers. But, never the less, a few months later I was in RCIA.

I still keep my prayers short. And many of them are answered. Oh, I may say a rosary before or after what I pray for, but what I ask God for I keep short. I think he likes it that way.

Bill
 
40.png
Lance:
Is anyone else having trouble praying? I say prayers and I tell God how wonderful He is, thank Him for all that I have, ask for blessings and other things and then I am done and it is only a minute or two. I know it should be longer but I don’t know what else to say so I do the Rosary. I just think I should be able to talk to God for more than 2 minutes with out running out of things to say. Any suggestions?:confused:
Click to expand...
I know what you are saying but on the other hand I have gotten used to praying all day long, in spurts.

I was listening to Catholic radio and there was a program on prayer and a recommendation was made to make the sign of the cross in your palm with your thumb. I thought it was a great idea and have been doing it probably hundreds of times a day ever since. Just open your palm and with your other hand’s thumb, just do it and know that you are saying a prayer when you do it. It’s so easy, quick and inobtrusive. No one knows you’re praying at all, except you and God.

Other prayers are just little few word prayers. “Yes” (Your will be done or thank you. However you want it), “I love you.”, “thank you”, “Have Mercy”, “Forgive me”, “Forgive him”,
etc.

These are just simple little things that can be done and you will find you are praying all day long. Your day turns out to be a prayer.
God bless.
Whit
 
I have a book by Peter Kreeft, the title of which I can’t remember now, but it’s basically a prayer primer. There are a couple of things he had to say that might be helpful to you. One was that you don’t always have to sit down and pray in a deliberate way. You can simply talk to God about the things you’re doing, as you do them; ask Him to help you make decisions, even the little ones; think about Him while you’re working. Kreeft told one story about a very busy mother, who said she prayed by talking to God while she cleaned house. In other words, prayer doesn’t always have to be formal (not that there isn’t an important place for that formal prayer).

Another thing I liked from the book (although it’s something I haven’t used as much as I might have) is the suggestion to simply repeat Jesus’ name over and over in a reverent manner. It can help you focus your mind on who you’re talking to, without having to think of specific things to say. Just love Him, and feel His love for you.

Ah! The book’s title just came to me - “Prayer for Beginners” (I knew it was something like that - just couldn’t get past “Prayer for Dummies,” which I knew was wrong.:)). It’s very short, an easy read.

He has lots of other great suggestions for prayer too; guess I need to reread it because I can’t remember some of the others! That’s a sign for me…
 
Tell God about your day…of course He KNOWS but thats not the point…its really relaxing and a good way to see how He has worked with you throughout the day.
 
Praying can be somewhat difficult for me at times…I remember a sermon that was givin at church not so long ago about prayer and how to enhance it…the preist suggested that we open our self up to the Holy Spirit and ask him to some into our heart and soul to help us pray to the Lord. I have been doing this on a regular basis and feel that it has helped me.

Hope this helps,
God be with you,
Kayla
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top