Praying in one's mind

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Dose praying in one’s head (not saying any words but praying quietly) is the same thing as if a person would pray by talking?

Is it faithful to pray and not saying any words?

Can you pray and do other activities at the same time?

These three questions came up to me when I ask my mom if she prayed often on the way home from church. She said that she dose pray to God but she prays in her mind. I was wondering how faithful a person especially my mom is if they pray often in their head and not say anything.
 
Your mom isn’t at fault. God can definitely hear your prayers in your thoughts. The quality of a prayer isn’t diminished when you don’t use words.

As far as activities go, you can offer all your activities up to God as one big prayer.

Regarding Mental Prayer

Hope this helped 🙂 God Bless.
 
It sounds like you are talking about mental prayer. It’s a perfectly acceptable manner of praying.

A definition …

Mental Prayer — “a silent elevation and application of our mind and heart to God in order to offer Him our homages and to promote His glory by our advancement in virtue.” (Adolphe Tanquerey)

Saint Theresa’s definition from her Life: “Mental Prayer is nothing else than an intimate friendship, a frequent heart-to-heart with Him by whom we know ourselves to be loved.”

Read more here.
 
I always pray in my mind, except for the Rosary which I prefer to pray aloud.
 
I always assumed we could pray in our thought. If we can sin through our thoughts, God must be able to hear our prayers too. 😉
 
I would assume this means that God allows the Saints/Angels/BVM to hear our inner prayers, as well?

I personally tend to pray out loud, or at least at a whisper, but my main reason for that is that it helps my mind to not wander while in prayer.
 
I pray in my mind alot. And when I say alot, I mean alot! I didn’t know it was called mental prayer though. For example, whenever I have a meeting( I have a lot of them these days), I pray in my head before I walk into the room and also during the meeting to help me from getting frustrated with the person speaking. It sure gives me patience. 🙂
 
God knows what we need before we ask. So god can definitely hear our thoughts.
 
WingsOfEagles said:
I always assumed we could pray in our thought. If we can sin through our thoughts, God must be able to hear our prayers too. 😉
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Good point! I am a frequent mental pray-er, mainly because I am frequently in situations where talking out loud is inadvisable. I’ve never had any doubts about the efficacy of mental prayer, and your statement is one more point in favor.
 
Praying internally is perfectly acceptable because your praying in the presence of God who dwells within.

As others have said, St. Teresa of Avila called in Mental Prayer, or Quiet Prayer as used by others.

It doesn’t have to be traditional prayers you memorized, but just saying the Lord’s Name, i.e.
“Lord Jesus,” is enough.

Jim
 
How would I ever find time to pray, if not for praying in my head. There is a lot of laundry that needs to be done 😃
 
crm0293 said:
Dose praying in one’s head (not saying any words but praying quietly) is the same thing as if a person would pray by talking?

Is it faithful to pray and not saying any words?
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Vocal prayer (ie: Our Father, Hail Mary, etc) that is not done aloud is called “sub-vocal prayer” and still counts as vocal prayer.

The vast majority of my vocal prayer is done in my head.
 
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