Prayer
What is prayer and how do we pray in everyday life? I explore these questions through my own experience from early life, and through my conversion.
What is prayer? How do we pray?
Webster’s Dictionary defines prayer as “an address (such as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says prayer is “the raising of one’s heart and mind toward God.”
Prayer can take many forms and be motivated by many intentions: petition, intercession, praise, thanksgiving, worship, and adoration. We can pray alone or with others; with our words, our mind, our heart, and even our silence. It is both complex and simple; easy to neglect, yet so very necessary.
I am by no means an expert in prayer, but I will offer some thoughts and share a few of my experiences as I have explored this great mystery, this wonderful gift that is prayer.
Growing up in a Protestant home (yes, I am a convert, more to come on that in future blogs) I learned to say my prayers at a young age: mostly before bed and often before meals; when I wanted something from God; when I felt scared; when I knew I had done something wrong and needed forgiveness. These simple, sometimes routine petitions to God, as infrequent as they may have been, carried me through many years of wayward living and worldly pursuits.
I learned to pray more fervently in my early adult life as I started attending a Pentecostal church and practiced spontaneous prayer, particularly in group settings. I learned also to pray with the Scriptures, especially the Psalms. Then, during my conversion, I discovered the great treasury of prayers in the Catholic Church. Though familiar with the Our Father (or Lord’s Prayer, as Protestants call it), I never really prayed it other than reading it in the Gospels. And the Hail Mary, well isn’t that just a football pass?
I was always intrigued by the Rosary though. I think I most often saw it in tattoo form along with some praying hands. Intrigued, but also terrified, much like with imagery of Our Lady, I was captivated, and yet apprehensive. I remember when I got my first Rosary: all black beads, a black wooden Crucifix, and a beautiful little centerpiece of Our Lady with a rose on the back. I carried it in my pocket for a long while before I ever prayed it. I remember, when praying with it for the first time, asking God to forgive me if I was offending Him.
Over the past two and a half years since my conversion, I have picked it up and put it down; prayed it daily, sometimes weekly. Loved it and felt indifferent to it. This month, however, I have committed to praying it daily. I’ve even started praying a decade with my wife and kids before bed. I think (I hope) I’ll pray it every day for the rest of my life. I’ve learned so much about the power of this prayer. I’ve grown so much in love for Mary, our sweet and Blessed Mother. I could, and no doubt will, write an entire blog on this prayer alone. I love the Holy Rosary. I sleep with it in my pocket or in my hand every night.
St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. In the literal sense, this seems impossible. But as I have opened up my mind to God’s presence and His desire to meet me in everyday life, as a husband, a father, a business owner, a son, I am starting to understand that everything is a prayer. When I’m with my family, when I’m working, in silence, in suffering, in impatience, everything can be offered up as a prayer. I guess, in some ways, I’m saying that prayer is a perspective.
So perhaps the question is, “What isn’t prayer?”
Thank you for joining me in this reflection. If you’d like to keep in touch, please subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram.
In Christ,
Jesse Cameron