Communicating with God through prayer is an essential element of Christian life. The Catholic Church distinguishes vocal prayer, meditative prayer, and contemplative prayer as three different expressions in the life of prayer.
As part of their relationship with God, Catholics go to Him with prayers of blessing, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. These forms of prayer may be articulated vocally, or mentally in mediation or contemplation.
Vocal prayer is said out loud or in the silence of the mind. Although often said in structured sets words or formulas, the vocal prayer of a Catholic should come from the heart and express their relationship with God.
Vocal prayer may include familiar prayers that have been memorized, like the Our Father, the Hail Mary, novenas, and litanies, or prayers that Catholics compose in their own words.
Christian meditation is different from other forms of meditation. In meditative prayer, Catholics use their minds and imagination in a spiritual exchange with God, seeking to understand what He has revealed and responding to what He asks.
Meditative prayer may include focusing on icons or sacred images, praying the Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, participating in liturgical prayer, and reading Sacred Scripture, including Lectio Divina.
The practice of meditative prayer should move Catholics to receive grace to be more like Jesus and more in union with the Holy Trinity, leading to contemplation, which is the highest expression of prayer and a gift from God.
In contemplation, Catholics simply spend intimate time with God with a gaze of faith, silently united in love and friendship with Him.
While meditation and contemplation are both expressions of mental prayer, meditative prayer is initiated and sustained by the effort of man, while contemplative prayer can only be initiated by God and given to man as He chooses.
How prayer is expressed in Christian life:
Ways to express the different forms of prayer:
Fundamental to Catholic teaching on prayer:
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18
The interior prayer of the heart is expressed in vocal prayer:
Vocal prayer is the prayer of the heart and of the lips:
We know well, in fact, that prayer should not be taken for granted. It is necessary to learn how to pray, as it were acquiring this art ever anew; even those who are very advanced in spiritual life always feel the need to learn from Jesus, to learn how to pray authentically. We receive the first lesson from the Lord by his example. The Gospels describe Jesus to us in intimate and constant conversation with the Father: It is a profound communion of the One who came into the world not to do his will but that of the Father who sent Him for the salvation of man.
Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 4 May 2011
Meditation is a healthy way to connect with God:
Contemplation is setting aside all other things:
The Lord leads all persons by paths and in ways pleasing to him, and each believer responds according to his heart’s resolve and the personal expressions of his prayer. However, Christian Tradition has retained three major expressions of prayer: vocal meditative, and contemplative. They have one basic trait in common: composure of heart. This vigilance in keeping the Word and dwelling in the presence of God makes these three expressions intense times in the life of prayer.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2699
Two modes of mental prayer:
A continuum between pure meditation and pure contemplation:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
A life of total profession:
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