TABLE OF CONTENT

TABLE OF CONTENT……………………………………………………IV

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.......................................................................1

CHAPTER I

1. WHAT IS PRAYER? ……………………………………………………

CHAPTER II

2. THE TYPES OF PRAYERS ……………………………………………

2.1. Vocal prayer……………………………………………………

2.2 Petitional prayer………………………………………………

2.3 Intercessory prayer…………………………………………………

2.4 Liturgicalprayer……………………………………………………

2.5Meditative prayer…………………………………………………

2.6 Contemplative prayer………………………………………………

CHAPTER III

3. WHY PRAYER IS NECESSARY? ………………………………………

CHAPTER IV

4. WHEN TO PRAY? ……………………………………………………

4.1. Praying in the morning………………………………………………

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 4.2. Praying in the night…………………………………………………

4.3. Prayer during time of crisis…………………………………………

4.4. Praying after achievement…………………………………………

4.5. When we are busy…………………………………………………

4.6. During the time of temptation………………………………………

CHAPTER V

5. WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM PRAYER? ……………………………

CHAPTER VI

6. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE PRAYER …………………………

GENERAL CONCLUSION ………………………………………………

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………….

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 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Prayer is one of the greatest tools we can have in the world because it opens
the door to a dialogue with God. Through prayer we are engaged in dialogue
with God, the one who created us, and the one who never leaves us. Prayer
is basically a conversation with God. It is simply expressing our heart and
spending time with Him. It is exciting. Powerful and fulfilling. Many
impassible things are wrought by prayer. He who has learned to pray has
learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life. To pray to God we need
not have to enter monastery or convent or have to become nun or priest but
as human being we need prayer. Prayer is the time when we speak to God
closely. We share with Him all our difficulties and troubles, all our joys and
sorrows.

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 CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS PRAYER?

Prayer is the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God, to praise His
goodness, to thank Him for His kindness, to acknowledge our sins and plead
for pardon, and to ask His aid for our salvation, and to give glory to Him.
The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking
water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first
seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the
depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is an
encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for Him. 1
To pray is to say Yes to God, to affirm the sense of contradiction we
experience, the pain of morality and death, the suffering caused by violence
and oppression. Again and again prayer is a cry of lament from the depths of
the spirit. It calls out loudly, insistently. The language of prayer finds its
purpose and justification in the silently concealed face of God. Hence the
lament, supplication, crying and protest contained in prayer, as also the
silent accusation of the wordless cry, can never simply be translated and
dissolved into a discourse.2

1
Theological Publication in India, Catechism of the Catholic Church (Bangalore: Theological
Publication in India, 1994), 461.
2
Rahner Karl and Johann Baptist Metz, The Courage to Pray (New York: The Crossroad Publishing
Company, 1981), 11.

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 CHAPTER TWO

THE TYPES OF PRAYER

2.1. Vocal prayer:-

It is said aloud alone or in groups. Charismatic prayer is a good

example of such type of prayer. This prayer is an essential element of the
Christian life. Jesus teaches a vocal prayer “Our Father” to his disciple. He
not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the
Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from
exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of gethsemane.3 Vocal prayer is
the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer,
however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is internalized to the extent
that we become aware of him “to whom we speak.”4

2.2. Petitional prayer:-

In this prayer we ask God for the specific things we need in our life.
Petitions are usually self-orientated, presenting our personal needs to our
Heavenly Father, it trusts that He will provide. Christ himself has told us to
ask God for things: “Truly, truly, I say to you whatever you ask in my name
my Father will give you.”5

2.3. Intercessory prayer:-

To intercede means to plead or mediate on behalf of another person.

Intercessory prayer means love on its knees in prayer for others. It is
pleading on behalf of the needs of someone else. The intercessory prayers

3
Mt 11: 25-26; Mk 14:36 RSV.
4
Murray Andrew, The Prayer Life (Bombay: Moody Publication, 1891), 117.
5
Jn 16:23-24 RSV.

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offered during the Eucharist by the already baptized from those offered by
and for the catechumens which preceded them. In general, the intentions
concern the needs of the whole Church, public authorities and the salvation
of the world, those who are oppressed and the local community, including
the sick and deceased.6

2.4. Liturgical prayer:-

This prayer is the official and public prayer of the Church, such as the
Mass or the Divine Office. Liturgical prayer is a set way of praying often
using prayer books. Today the term liturgy is applied to the public worship
of the Church. The Mass, the other sacraments, the Divine Office, and public
ritual are all part of the Church’s liturgy.7

2.5. Meditative prayer:-

Meditative prayer is holding little conversation with the lord within

our head. It is visualizing the Father, His Beloved Son or Mary the Mother
of God. It’s reading a passage from Scripture, meditating on it, then
imagining the scene and placing ourselves in it.

2.6. Contemplative prayer:-

Contemplative prayer is ‘being lost’ in the beauty and wonder of God

and His creation, acknowledging His greatness in all things. A simple and
loving appreciation of God or divine things brought about by the Holy Spirit
and the growth of his gifts in our souls. St. Teresa says: “Contemplative

6
Stravinskas Peter M. J. “Prayer of the Faithful,” Catholic Encyclopedia, vol.1, gen. ed. Anthony J.
Bevilacqua (Huntington: Noll Plaza, 1975) 772.
7
Lawler Ronald, Donald W. Wuerl and Thomas Comerford Lawler, The Teaching of Christ
(Bombay: St. Paul Publication, 1994), 203.

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prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends, it
means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.”8

CHAPTER THREE

WHY PRAYER IS NECESSARY?

Prayer is necessary because God has commanded us to pray. The first

commandment of God binds man to religion and worship of God; thou shall
not have strange gods before me. The first commandment obliges us to offer
to God alone the supreme worship that is due Him.

1. Prayer is necessary because it is the great unconditional means of

obtaining grace. The sacraments and prater together with good works are
the divinely instituted means of grace.
2. Prayer is also absolutely necessary for certain things in the Christian life.
God gives to all the grace to pray, for He sincerely wills the salvation of
every soul, and provides every man with sufficient grace to save his soul.
3. Prayer is necessary because it is the basis of hope. The certitude of our
Christian hope rests ultimately upon prayer.9

8
St. Teresa of Lisieux, The Story of My Soul: An Autobiography, Trans. By Ronald Knox (London:
Collins Clear-Type Press, 1958), 247.
9
Lawrence G. Lovasik, Prayer in Catholic Life (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1961), 1.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

WHEN TO PRAY?

4.1. Praying in the morning:-

Jesus chose the early morning hour for prayer. In this morning hour
the mind is fresh and at its very best. It is free from destruction, and that
absolute concentration upon God which is essential to the most effective
prayer is most easily possible in the early morning hours. And we pray early
in the morning we get strength to overcome any kind of temptation. Morning
Prayer is also a sign that one longs for God. Christ longed for communion
with God; and so, rising a great while before day, he would go out into the
mountain to pray.10

4.2. Praying in the night:-

In the sixth chapter of Luke, verse 12, we see Jesus preying at night,
spending the entire night in prayer. Of course we have no reason to suppose
that this was the constant practice of our Lord, nor do we even know how
common this practice was, but there were certainly times when the whole
night was given up to prayer. Here too we do well to follow in the footsteps
of the Master. In the night hours the world is hushed in slumber, and we can
easily be alone with God and have undisturbed communion with Him. St.
Alphonsus would say prayer of petition is not only efficacious but essential
for salvation. ‘Whoever prays is certainly saved. Whoever does not pray is

10
M. E. Bounds, Power Through Prayer (Canada: Word of Life Publisher, 1972), 56.

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certainly damned. For him to pray in petition is to begin to live the redeemed
life.11

4.3. Prayer during time of crisis:-

Jesus prayed before choosing the twelve disciples; before the Sermon
on the Mount; before starting out on an evangelistic tour; before announcing
to the Twelve, His approaching death; before the great consummation of His
life at the cross. He prepared for every important crisis by a protracted
season of prayer.

4.4. Praying after achievement: -

Christ prayed not only before the great events and victories of His life,
but He also prayed after its great achievements. When He had fed the five
thousand with the five loaves and two fishes, and the multitude desired to
take Him and make Him king, having sent them away He went up into the
mountain apart to pray and spent hours there alone in prayer to God.12 So He
went from victory to victory.

4.5. When we are busy:-

Jesus Christ gave a special time to prayer when life was unusually
busy. He would withdraw in such a time from the multitudes that thronged
about Him, and go into the wilderness and pray. So too we must pray when
we are busy and God will render us all our needs because we have not fail to
call him even in difficulty.13

11
Sean Wales, ed., Lexicon of Redemptorist Spirituality (Rome: Redemptorist Publication, 2011),
223.
12
Mt 14:23; Jn 6:15 NRSV
13
R. A. Torrey, How to Pray (Bombay: Moody Publication, 1895), 78.

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4.6. During the time of temptation:-

Jesus Christ prayed before the great temptations of His life. The
victory of life was won that night in the garden of Gethsemane. The calm
majesty of His bearing in meeting the awful onslaughts of Pilate’s judgment
hall and of Calvary was the outcome of the struggle, agony and victory of
Gethsemane. Like Jesus we also must pray in order to be courageous to face
all our trails. God will not be displeased that in our desolations we should go
to our friends to find some relief; but he wills us chiefly to have recourse to
himself.14

14
Carl Hoegerl, ed., Heart Calls to Heart: An Alphonsian Anthology (Rome: Redemptorist
Publication, 1981), 206.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM PRAYER?

Through prayer we can learn and know God’s will for our assignment,
purpose and destiny. Prayer also builds our faith in the scriptures and the
covenant promises found in them. Faith is the assurance that we have been
reconciled to God through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. The
confidence and faith in our salvation is that we are saved, healed, delivered,
protected and possess the promise of eternal life with Him. Through faith we
can have access to God in prayer. Through faith we gain the habitation or
indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (our comforter, helper and teacher) to
become a fellow citizen of the household of God to believe that all things are
possible.
The law of faith is to believe that He is. Faith says that He is a
rewarder to those who seek Him diligently. If we begin to search, know, and
believe what the scriptures say, then we will confess with our mouth to agree
with God and His word. In addition, there is a progressive desire for the will
of God to be accomplished in our life through knowledge and understanding
of His scriptures.15

15
Christine Brooks Martin, “Pray What God Says,” Available at http:// www.
Praywhatgodsays.com

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 CHAPTER SIX

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE PRAYER

Holy Spirit is the spirit of prayer. He is definitely called by this name in

Zechariah 12:10 “The spirit of grace and of supplications.’’ Twice in Paul’s
Epistles there is a remarkable reference to Him in the matter of prayer. The
Holy Spirit is given for the express purpose of teaching us, from the very
beginning of our Christian life onward, to utter that word in childlike trust
and surrender. Holy Spirit is the one which helps us to pray. It is written in
Romans 8:26, 27: “likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we
know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit himself
maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because
hemaketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.’’ Is not
clear from this that the Christian of left to himself does not know how to
pray; or how he ought to pray; and that God has stooped to meet us in this
helplessness of ours by giving us the Holy Spirit Himself to pray for us;16

16
Murray Andrew, The Prayer Life (Bombay: Moody Publication, 1891), 63-64.

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 CONCLUSION

Prayer is an inborn nature of human being. We naturally pray when we are

in need of God’s help. Nobody needs to be taught as the fish swim. It is so
natural as breathing or beating of heart. As we breathe or our heart beats all
the times so also we have to pray all the time, in all places unceasingly. We
need to remember that prayer need not happen in a physical church, but in
the church within us. We can pray even when we are walking down the
street, learning our lessons, driving in our car, or shopping in a store. And
we can find God and His presence everywhere. God sleeps in the minerals,
lies in the landscapes, awakens in plants, walks in animals, thinks and loves
in man. To be effective in prayer it is necessary for us to know the types of
prayer and how we can invoke God’s name more effectively. Prayer is the
means of salvation for people. St. Alphonsus De Liguory often used to say
“One who prays is saved and the one does not pray is condemned.” So we
must always strive to be a prayerful person in order to save our lives from
the clutches of sins.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Theological Publication in India, Catechism of the Catholic Church. Bangalore:

Theological Publication in India, 1994.

RAHNER, Karl and Johann Baptist Metz. The Courage to Pray. New York: The
Crossroad Publishing Company, 1981.

MURRAY, Andrew. The Prayer Life. Bombay: Moody Publication, 1891.

STRAVINSKAS, Peter M. J. “Prayer of the Faithful.” Catholic Encyclopedia, gen. ed.

Anthony J. Bevilacqua, 1, 772. Huntington: Noll Plaza, 1975.

LAWLER, Donald and Thomas Comerford Lawler. The Teaching of Christ. Bombay: St.
Paul Publication, 1994.

LISIEUX, Teresa. The Story of My Soul: An Autobiography. Trans. By Ronald Knox.

London: Collins Clear-Type Press, 1958.

LOVASIK, Lawrence G. Prayer in Catholic Life. New York: The Macmillan Company,
1961.

BOUNDS, M. E. Power through Prayer. Canada: Word of Life Publisher, 1972.

WALES, Sean, ed. Lexicon of Redemptorist Spirituality. Rome: Redemptorist

Publication, 2011.

TORREY, R. A. How to Pray. Bombay: Moody Publication, 1895.

HOEGERL, Carl, ed. Heart Calls to Heart: An Alphonsian Anthology. Rome:

Redemptorist Publication, 1981.

MARTIN, Christine Brooks. “Pray What God Says.” Available at http:// www.
Praywhatgodsays.com. Accessed on 27 September 2018.

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