M
MistyF
Guest
When I was taught to pray growing up, I was taught that memorizing certain prayers was very, very wrong. All prayer was supposed to be “from the heart” and improvisational. I have prayed several times since opening my heart to God’s word recently, and I’ve been studying the Catholic faith for hours daily. But, when I lost faith in religion growing up, the first thing to go was prayer, because it never felt like I was talking to God anyway. And so, when I first began to believe in God again, I was really nervous about praying. And still am, though it’s better.
But, I’m wondering where I can go…to learn to talk to God, I guess is the way to put it. I know that the Catholic faith involves many prayers that are memorized and specific to certain situations. And I want to find out about this. But, I also want to know…what is it that I’m supposed to do when there’s something specific that I feel the need to pray about. For example - tomorrow will be my first RCIA class. And next week I will be attending my first Mass. And probably the biggest thing I feel like I need to pray about is introducing my children (boys, 5 & 7) to the concept of there being a God, who Jesus is, all the stories that so many other children have been taught from birth. Having been agnostic since before their births, they were never taught anything. I even asked them recently if they knew who Jesus was, and they looked puzzled. I bought them both Catholic versions of Children’s Bibles, and I plan on beginning to read with them. These are the things that I feel I need to pray about.
But I feel so strange, almost scared, about it. I don’t dread it like I did as a teenager. But, this time I believe in Him, and I believe that I should pray, I guess I just don’t feel worthy of it, and I feel like I don’t know how.
Any advice, or links to information that might help?
But, I’m wondering where I can go…to learn to talk to God, I guess is the way to put it. I know that the Catholic faith involves many prayers that are memorized and specific to certain situations. And I want to find out about this. But, I also want to know…what is it that I’m supposed to do when there’s something specific that I feel the need to pray about. For example - tomorrow will be my first RCIA class. And next week I will be attending my first Mass. And probably the biggest thing I feel like I need to pray about is introducing my children (boys, 5 & 7) to the concept of there being a God, who Jesus is, all the stories that so many other children have been taught from birth. Having been agnostic since before their births, they were never taught anything. I even asked them recently if they knew who Jesus was, and they looked puzzled. I bought them both Catholic versions of Children’s Bibles, and I plan on beginning to read with them. These are the things that I feel I need to pray about.
But I feel so strange, almost scared, about it. I don’t dread it like I did as a teenager. But, this time I believe in Him, and I believe that I should pray, I guess I just don’t feel worthy of it, and I feel like I don’t know how.
Any advice, or links to information that might help?