The best position to pray

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Gabriel2

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Hello, God bless you!

I am a beginner in praying and would like to know which is the best position to pray. I pray on my knees, for I have known that, as we human beings are made up of body and soul, both our body and soul must be in prayer, as we are not angels. I heard it was Saint Thomas Aquinas who had said that, but I am not sure about it. And there are some arguments which hold it, like Saint Luke 22, 39-41, when, in His Passion, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives with His disciples, knelt down and prayed. And in the Catechism of Saint Pius X, praying in general section, question 19, maybe the text says about observing a respectful posture. Correct me if I am wrong.

But, when I kneel down, I feel like finishing the prayer as soon as possible, even in the beginning. The praying becomes hard and tiring to me. I ask you, then, can I pray in other position? Which is the best to pray? And devoutly? How the saints prayed? Are there saints who didn’t pray on knees?
 
I will quote St. Samthan, whose feast day was just a couple days ago.

When a monk asked her what was the best position for prayer, she answered: “Every position - sitting, standing or lying down.”

I personally will kneel at the times appropriate in the Mass, Exposition, Benediction, etc, and for a few moments at the start of Adoration, and in the confessional, and at other times when it’s called for.
But I cannot kneel for long periods of time because physically it becomes painful and distracts me from prayer, and many church kneeler and pew arrangements do not work with my body type especially if the church is older and was made for people who were smaller, thinner, etc.

So, I prefer to talk to God while sitting in a comfortable position. It is supposed to be a conversation after all. I don’t converse with my father or my good friends on earth while kneeling for 2 hours. Occasionally I will pray lying down but I avoid that because it sometimes causes me to doze off.

Regarding saints praying on knees, we must remember that many if not most saints were priests or religious and were formed, usually from a very young age, to be able to kneel straight up for long periods of time on hard surfaces. If you start doing that in your tweens or teens, you do it for hours a day and keep it up for years, you develop the needed muscles to be able to do it until you get too old or disabled to do it any more. I also suspect that the convents and monasteries might not have accepted novices who had trouble maintaining the proper prayer positions. I was not trained in this manner and have always had some physical issues kneeling way back to my First Communion. A big memory of my First Communion is the sister scolding me for resting my posterior against the pew instead of kneeling up straight. I still do this because the pews and my body make it hard for me to kneel up straight.

Bottom line is you don’t have to pray on your knees. If you can do it and are comfortable doing it, fine, do it, but your prayer is just as holy if you pray sitting down.
 
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It doesn’t really matter what position you are in. As long as you pray, that’s all that matters.
 
Because of the same reason you stated for kneeling, of late, I am of the habit to finish the prayers in kneeling. Rest of the prayers do in sitting or standing. Even 15 minutes of kneeling is unfortunately quite difficult.
 
Ditto to the above. I pray in lots of different positions. Kneeling is formal, and at least our church has padded kneelers and cushioned pews. I pray in a conversational style, and that includes body position and language.
 
This is just my personal opinion, but I like:
Stand for vocal prayer (particularly when praying together with others).
Kneel for adoration.
Sit for meditation.
 
When I was younger I could kneel for hours and it didn’t bother me. Now that I’m older I only kneel in church and occasionally at home. I usually sit in my chair/pew at home or in church. During Paschaltide there’s no kneeling so you have to stand throughout the entire Liturgy.

In 1990, our former pastor read the Gospel for Pascha/Easter (John 1: 1-17) in Latin, Greek, Slavonic, Ukrainian & English - AND you had to stand for ALL 5 versions of the Gospel! I was exhausted but happy.

P.S. Who is the saint you mentioned?
 
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ICN, from which Rob used to post the saints of the day, follows the UK Latin Rite calendar and contains a great many saints who were very popular in UK in earlier times but are not well known today. Many were abbots, nuns, or bishops. It’s a great way for Yanks like me to discover new saints.
 
Use a cushion when you first begin to pray while kneeling. Then you will find your best position anyway. Also yoir feet will adjust.
You can also stand while praying.
If you are sick just sit or stand, whatever fits you. Or even lie down. Prayer mustn’t be torture. Devotion grows.
 
I kneel in Church.
I pray standing in my room: I have made a special place on a shelf for my framed picture of Jesus, a beautiful picture of Mary a friend brought me from Poland, a statue of Our Lady of Fatima, pictures of Saint Bernadette and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, a little Nativity, my bottle of Holy Water from Lourdes and I also have the Bible on it and my rosary so I pray in front of the shelf, standing. I really like this little corner in my room.
When home I also pray in whatever position, in bed and even in the bathroom sometimes because I concentrate ( I know, the latter is probably weird and I’ve asked myself if it’s disrespectful but I don’t have bad intentions so idk ).
 
The best position to pray in is whatever position you currently are in. For planned prayer, knees are fine if ya’ got 'em. Standing, sitting, lying in bed, running for your life, skydiving - all are valid.

What is needed much more than position is humility. Humility is only partially shown by one’s physical posture - but that is also easily faked. The genesis of humility is in the heart and God knows your heart.
 
I also kneel when I pray and when I receive the Eucharist I guess it’s from my protestant roots but I feel like I’m disrespecting Christ when I stand to receive .
 
Doesn’t matter… there is no best position.

Good luck to you and keep praying
 
I think any position is fine as long you are praying and you are genuine in your heart.
I personally pray it’s either sitting or laying down with my eyes closed.
 
I like kneeling when praying at my crucifix and feel this gets my mind focused on god. I still pray in bed or in the car. Its just important to have that connection with god regulary throughout the day. God gives us so much strength from being in regular prayer.
 
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