Praying as Jesus did

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Ok so, I know a convert that told me Jesus prayed very likely with a Jewish praying method. It involves wrappings in the hands and such. I know in the bible it says to pray a lot and that’s great. The bible also says to pray the Our Father even though it’s a little different. Now, if someone shows you how to pray like a Jewish person, could/should you? I’ve not really seen a Pope do it to my recollection but it sounds pretty fascinating.
 
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We pray from the heart.
With love.
Sincerely, with humility.
The HOW is of little importance. Even a child can pray with excellence.
God hears all the prayers of His children.
 
I guess you can, but it’s not important at all.

I usually pray like I’m having a conversation with a friend throughout the day. I don’t know if that’s disrespectful though.
 
CatholicSpirit said:
Ok so, I know a convert that told me Jesus prayed very likely with a Jewish praying method. It involves wrappings in the hands and such. I know in the bible it says to pray a lot and that’s great. The bible also says to pray the Our Father even though it’s a little different. Now, if someone shows you how to pray like a Jewish person, could/should you? I’ve not really seen a Pope do it to my recollection but it sounds pretty fascinating.
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Jesus grew up Jewish. What you refer to is Jewish men wrapping prayer writings on an arm and , having prayers in a little box, on the forehead.

Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer. He told us to pray this prayer.

Jesus established the Catholic Church,. He came to teach us and leave us , as the body of the Church, in the capable hands of Peter, the Apostles, and their successors. In the growth of the Church, this Tradition changed. New and different Traditions are what we have to many Jewish ones. Ie blood sacrifice, our feasts are different.

My Priest discussed prater , in Mass, yesterday.

Pray simply
Pray honestly
Keep praying.
 
Lea101, that is totally awesome, I like praying that way at times too. I can go on for hours with praying and the bible says it’s better to do that than not! Great to hear about your positive experience, I encourage you to keep it up! 🙂
 
I see evidences of God’s existence in nature, in life. I hope I am not coming off as disrespectful if I say: what if the answer to your prayer is there all along, only if you look at your surroundings more closely. We (me included) sometimes brush off the little miracles as mere coincidences. Or perhaps we are so used to something that we don’t consider it a miracle anymore.

If my child keeps asking me: “Please prove that you love me.” A hug or a kiss would be a gesture that may or may not prove my love. A person can be indifference towards someone and still hug and kiss the other person. However, such gestures may appease my child if she is not of age of critical thinking. To my child, I would say that: “I provide a house for you, clothes, food, your being able to go to school, etc. Sometimes I do get angry and punish you, but it, hopefully, will teach you right from wrong. These are my ways to prove that I love you.”

A couple of things to keep in mind when praying: He answers in His time, not our time. His will, not our will. His ways, possibly not the ways that we expect. He may also use other people/things to answer.

Anyway, back to the topic, I usually pray in silence. Sometimes sitting, standing, kneeling. Sometimes I close my eyes, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I look down, sometimes I look up. I agree that it is not the HOW that matters. Be loving, be honest and be persistent.
 
Every breath you take is a prayer. Thank Him for it. If you didn’t have that gift of life and breath, you wouldn’t have a prayer. Thank you, Lord, for each and every heartbeat and the breath you have provided me for which I pray with. Peace. MEB
 
Also wanted to add, nothing to do with the sign of the cross (can’t edit first post) I love it. Pretty sure everyone who replied got that much already, just saying it for newcomers!
 
“CatholicSpirit said:
Ok so, I know a convert that told me Jesus prayed very likely with a Jewish praying method. It involves wrappings in the hands and such. I know in the bible it says to pray a lot and that’s great. The bible also says to pray the Our Father even though it’s a little different. Now, if someone shows you how to pray like a Jewish person, could/should you? I’ve not really seen a Pope do it to my recollection but it sounds pretty fascinating.
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Look into it, for sure. Your understanding of Catholicism will be all the better for it. Learning about Judaism certainly did that for me.

But Catholic prayer is the richest in the world. Have you tried the Rosary? Divine Mercy? The Liturgy of the Hours?..
 
JPII said it best, Pray any way you like, so long as you PRAY!
 
What is it that helps one pray better? What gets us in the mood, in the reverent farm of mind? What helps us to pray humbly, intently, lovingly? Maybe something different for all of us. Sometimes I like to use a tallit, sometimes incense, candle, or just sit in quiet.
 
Early in the morning around 3 AM, I pop awake and start my rosary - usually get through the opening section (I’d really like to know what that’s called!) Then while driving to work and waiting foe somebody else to go in first, I complete the days 5 decades.
 
CB, I think it’s called “the opening section”, but don’t quote me on that. 😉 😃
 
CatholicSpirit, it’s called a “Tefillin”. It’s in Deuteronomy 6:8 that G_D commands the Jews “Bind them (these words) on your arm as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.” You might want to read Deut 6:4-9 as it contains the words that are in the tefillin and the mezuzah. Jesus uses this section as the introduction to The Good Samaritan in Lk 10:27. You can find a fuller description of the tefifllin at Chabad.org.

This is one of the ritual laws of the Old Covenant that we as Christians, living under the New Covenant established by Jesus, are no longer required to practice. There are some Jewish traditions that I think we as Christians can practice both to honor our Jewish heritage and to gain a deeper understanding of and relationship with G_D. For example, about 10 years ago I started adopting the Orthodox practice of not spelling out “God” but using a dash or underline instead of the “o”. When I first started this practice, I had to force myself to slow down my typing to do this, which forced me to consider His Holy Name and makes the practice almost like a prayer.

As for the Lord’s Prayer, there are two ways of looking at it. First is that rabbis at the time would have prayers that they composed that were several pages long, and their disciples were required to read, memorize, and pray these prayers. When His disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray”, they were expecting one of these long prayers. Instead, they get something very simple and very intimate (addressing G_D as “Abba”, or “Daddy”) In addition, while the prayer is simple and perfect as it is, it also looks like it is to be a template in how we should pray to G_D: an intimate beginning, praise for G_D, a statement of hope, setting out your needs, and asking Him to protect us.
 
Fascinating, and great post opening! Super descriptive and all. I went through a phase of writing G_d and not. It’s hard to figure out sometimes because if not writing it, can that be a symbol of disbelief in salvation? And it was his son that went through horrible suffering to obtain it for us. Harsh loop there, so I mess up either way, tough one I guess…
 
as long as you know and accept there is a god, you can pray in any way you want.
 
If you are interested in Jewish prayers, you might consider purchasing a “siddur” which is a Jewish prayer book that contains all of the daily prayers.

Art Scroll publishes versions of the Art Scroll Siddur in Hebrew with English translation and transliteration, which is the most popular siddur among the Orthodox.

Of biblical origin, Jewish men wear phylacteries called “tefillin” on their head and arm when praying, and wear a prayer shawl with fringes or “tzitzit”. The prayers in the siddur were composed many hundreds if not thousands of years ago, and comprise many psalms and sections from the first five books of the Hebrew Bible - the “Torah”.
 
StGerardMajella said:
Of biblical origin, Jewish men wear phylacteries called “tefillin” on their head and arm when praying, and wear a prayer shawl with fringes or “tzitzit”.
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The prayer shawl is called a “tallit”, with fringes or tzitzit at the corners that were known as “wings”. When the woman who had been bleeding for 20 years touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed, she probably touched the tzitzit or “wings” of His prayer shawl. "But for you who fear my name, the sun of justice will arise with healing in its wings; (Mal 3:20 NABRE) (NOTE: Protestant bibles cut off Malachi 3 at verse 18 and put the remaining verses into a separate chapter, Malachi 4. In those translations, the citation is Mal 4:2.)
 
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