Prayer

Prayer is found throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Even Jesus prayed and taught the Apostles to pray.

Prayer allows us to develop our relationship with God by communicating with Him. We speak to Him and He speaks to us.

Catholics use prayer to focus our attention on God and express our feelings to Him.

It is a way to obtain God’s grace and also cooperate with it so that we may achieve salvation.

There are many different forms and expressions of prayer for Catholics to use alone or in groups.

Prayer is our way of nurturing our relationship with God:

Start by having a conversation with God:

If you really wish to follow Christ, if you want your love for him to grow and last, then you must be faithful to prayer. It is the key to the vitality of your life in Christ. Without prayer, your faith and love will die. If you are constant in daily prayer and in the Sunday celebration of Mass, your love for Jesus will increase. And your heart will know deep joy and peace, such as the world could never give.
Pope John Paul II, Address to Young People of New Orleans, September 12, 1987

Prayer is plugging-in to the source of everything:

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

Our prayer allows us to cooperates with God in the spiritual world:

God speaks to us through prayer:

“Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart? He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2559

There are different types and modes of prayer:

There are five categories of prayer in Christian tradition: