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This article is about the many forms of prayer within Christianity.
The Early Church
The Bible records Jesus ascending into heaven in Acts 1, having entrusted the care of his church into the hands of his disciples. This group of men and women would become the first church, filled with the resurrection enthusiasm of their Messiah while attempting to live out his teaching and mission in practical ways.
Personal Prayer
Since the early church was made up of many with a Jewish lineage and history, a large part of the private prayers of its members followed typical Hebrew format. Praying three times a day became the daily office of the person, though, instead of a community encouraged practice. This adaptation was largely due to the problem that Christianity had not yet become a country-endorsed religion. While the Jews were able to communally close shops and trade for the sake of their Sabbath, the ability to maintain such a discipline among Jewish and Gentile Christians wasn't met with the same enthusiasm. This private practice would later develop into family devotions and personal "quiet times."Public Prayer
Prayer was so frequent in the gatherings of the early church that it seemed to act like a lubricating oil between its various working parts. There was not just one item on the worship agenda entitled "Pastoral Prayer." Instead, prayer was offered frequently throughout the worship service with the Lord's Prayer taking its place as the anchor - a common ritual in each gathering. This was largely due to three reasons:- A summarizing of the whole New Testament just as the Ten Commandments had summarized the Old.
- A catalyst for community intercession and connection.
- A response to the many growing heresies.
Liturgical
Elements of the oldest Christian liturgies may be found in liturgies such as the modern Roman Catholic Mass, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, the Lutheran Divine Service, and Anglican services.
Seasonal prayers
Seasonal prayers such as found in the Breviary, which provides prayer for each liturgical season including Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, as well as the other parts of the liturgical year. The Breviary developed over the centuries. Different religious orders sometimes have their own breviaries.Prayer to saints
Prayer to saints: in Catholic, Anglo-Catholic,and Orthodox tradition, prayers of petition may be addressed to saints. This may be done at Mass, within the Breviary, or privately during vocal prayer (see below).It is understood that the saints answer such prayers by means of their own prayers to God on behalf of the petitioner. Catholic Christians often refer to this in connection with the "treasury of merits"¹, and distinguish between latria, i.e. prayer of sacrifice due to God alone, and dulia, or prayer of praise due only to a creature such as a saint.
Some Catholic Christians point to the practice of praying to saints as similar to asking a trusted Christian friend to pray for someone.
Other Christians, mostly Protestants, reject the notion of prayer to saints, which they feel is unbiblical and feel that it may lead to polytheism, or maybe even approaching the borderline of necromancy. See Communion of Saints and Intercession of Saints.
Prayer for the dead
Prayer for the dead: Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics believe that prayers for the dead are efficacious; for this reason, requiem Masses are offered for the repose of the faithful departed.Eastern Orthodoxy rejects the notion of Purgatory, but offers prayers for the dead asking God to have mercy upon them; in particular, that tradition believes that Christians who have died remain part of the Church, and as such are both able to pray and to receive the benefits of prayer for them, whatever those may be.
Protestants have historically rejected the notion of prayer for the dead, believing that such prayers are unbiblical and cannot affect the fate of departed souls. A noted exception would be the Lutheran communion, who have historically allowed (cf. the Lutheran the Book of Concord) for prayers to be prayed for the departed but not to the departed.
Prayerbooks
There is no one prayerbook containing a set liturgy used by all Christians; however many Christian denominations have their own local prayerbooks, for example:- Book of Common Prayer (the traditional Anglican prayer book, still in use or modified by the constituent churches of the Anglican Communion, and one of the most influential prayerbooks in the English language)
- The Upper Room (United Methodist Church daily devotional)
- The Roman Breviary (Traditional Roman Catholic Monastic Hours)
Vocal
Vocal prayer, of course, is prayer made with the lips, normally producing sound. Practices of vocal prayer vary across denominations, but have common themes:
- Renouncing distraction, often by closing the eyes
- Presenting oneself by bowing the head, placing hands together, or making the sign of the cross
- Making a request for grace, enlightenment or assistance
- Invoking the name, glory, or life of Jesus
- Closing, often with "Amen"
The prayer is supposed to receive the full mental and spiritual effort of those involved, whether speaking or listening. Even if a standard wording is used, mechanical recitation is discouraged.
Vocal prayer may be prayer of petition, perhaps the simplest form of prayer. Some have termed it the "social approach" to prayer. In this view, a person beseeches God for a need to be fulfilled; God is thought to listen to prayer and to be free to grant the request or not. Vocal prayer may also subsume prayer of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, intercession, and communion. Particularly common vocal prayers include the Lord's Prayer; the Psalms; the Jesus Prayer; the Hail Mary; the Canticles throughout the Old and New Testaments; Grace, a prayer of thanksgiving usually before, sometimes after, a meal; and prayers associated with the rosary and the prayer rope. See List of prayers.
Meditative
This is prayer of a more interior character than vocal prayer would tend to imply. Christian theology, e.g. St. John of the Cross, teaches that this type of prayer is intended to help "obtain some knowledge and love of God" (Ascent of Mount Carmel). In this prayer, "thought is subordinated to love" (Gabriel, p. 449, see References below).
Christian meditation may commence by reading from a holy book of some kind, perhaps the Gospels or any spiritual book that seems suitable. Then, when a suitably affective recollection takes hold, the book will be gently laid aside, and the person will pray silently. The person may form sentences mentally, or may simply bask in what the Christian would consider the love of God.
Christians are especially likely to select works written by the Saints, as these are people who have already led lives of prayer and left writings intended to help others. Subjects for meditation include any of the mysteries of Jesus or the events described in the Gospels, or the presence of God in the subject about which one has been reading.
The Christian may meditate on the condition of Man according to Christian theology: "Although I am but dust and ashes, shall I speak to You, O Lord? Yes, from this vale of tears...I dare to raise my eyes and fix them on You, supreme Goodness!" (St. Peter of Alcantara) in Gabriel.
Christians believe that the Gospels are true, so that one is praying within the context of actual events and receiving actual graces. In other words, Jesus, i.e. God, did die to effect our salvation, and we really can be united with such a loving Father Who allowed His Son to be sacrificed in expiation for the sins of Man; so awful is the sinfulness of Man that such a sacrifice is necessary: these are the roots of Christian meditation.
In other religions, a more general conception of truth or creation may serve the same meditative end; the Christian would posit that the source and the long-term result are different. Other religious traditions have a meditative component, but the Christian believes that the source and subject of the meditation is fact, not philosophy; the philosophy flows from the facts for the Christian.
Prayer of recollection
St. Theresa of Avila teaches that this is "the highest of the active forms of prayer" that "depends upon our volition"; that is, it is not a given state of prayer, as is contemplative prayer. In this prayer, we seek to "concentrate entirely on God present within us, and there at His feet will be able to converse with Him to our heart's delight" (Gabriel p. 457). Again, the Catholic Eucharist is essential to understanding Christian mystical experience. The Catholic believes, with all the love his or her soul can open herself
Contemplative prayer
The progression from vocal, to meditative, to contemplative prayer is not a straight road, nor does the Christian travel in one direction. Rather, the soul enters into contemplation, then returns to reflect in a more discursive vein, and may suffer from distractions at any point along the way. This stage of prayer, the mystics teach, is one into which God conducts the soul. The person praying cannot will to enter into contemplation. A modern exponent of the details is Fr. Thomas Dubay, who has a number of books and videos about this subject. Saint John of the Cross teaches that this phase of prayer begins with purifying aridity that marks the beginning of infused passive love that is stronger than the love corresponding to the period during which the soul received consolations, i.e. the prior experiences of prayer. Here, God does the work of reaching to the soul, yet the soul must be sufficiently mature to grow without requiring constant consolations.
Many of the Saints experienced years of dryness and spiritual desolation, as God effectively tested their love for God. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, recently canonized, prayed deeply over how difficult faith is; Saint Therese of the Child Jesus experienced years of agonizing dryness immediately after joining the convent: these people became saints because their love for God gave them perseverance, and they entered into contemplative prayer, and a state of "loving attention to God." The soul is not passive during contemplative prayer, but rather learns to keep that attention to God in a loving way.
Methods of Contemplative Prayer include the Centering Prayer and Lectio divina
Physical posture
Certain physical gestures often accompany prayer, including medieval gestures such as genuflection or making the sign of the cross. Frequently hands are placed palms together and forward as in the feudal commendation ceremony. At other times the older orans posture may be used, with palms up and elbows in.
Charismatic prayer Speaking in Tongues
The term that is used to identify speaking in tongues is “glossolalia,” made up of two Greek words, glossa (language or tongue) and lalia (speech). It therefore means speaking in languages or tongues. Glossology is that department of anthropology which has to do with the study and classification of languages and dialects.
The word glossa appears in the Greek New Testament not less than fifty times. It is used to refer to the physical organ of the tongue as in James 3:5; once in reference to the flames of fire shaped like tongues (Acts 2:3); at least once in a metaphorical sense when referring to speech as in the statement, “my tongue (speech) was glad (joyous)” (Acts 2:26).
When Jesus predicted the gift of tongues (the only mention of tongues in the four Gospel records) He said, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues” (Mark 16:17).
The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible defines glossolalia as: "the ecstatic utterance of emotionally agitated religious persons, consisting of a jumble of disjointed and largely unintelligible sounds. Those who speak in this way believe that they are moved directly by a divine spirit and their utterance is therefore quite spontaneous and unpremeditated." A person speaking in tongues is typically in a state of religious ecstasy and is often unable to understand the words that she/he is saying.
Most Christians who speak in tongues believe that they are speaking in an existing language. However, it is not similar to any known human tongue. Many speculate that it is a heavenly tongue. i.e. a language spoken by angels or by God, and not similar to any human language. It was seen frequently in the church at Corinth in the 1st century CE
A Christian philosophy of prayer
For some Christians, union with God is a paramount purpose of religion. Christians believe that God is seeking union with His creature, Man. Prayer is the expression of the soul seeking to speak with God.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus explains: "For me, prayer is an uplifting of the heart, a glance toward heaven, a cry of gratitude and of love in times of sorrow as well as of joy" (Story of a Soul). The Christian seeks to raise the mind as well as the heart to God. Prayer, as discourse with a friend, is not constrained, but rather is spontaneous. Certain prayer events are organized, of course, as in the case of the Breviary, or the Mass, or other liturgical events; yet even during such events the specific discourse between the soul and God may be spontaneous. A Psalm, for example, may offer different meanings depending on the mood of the person praying. For the Christian, prayer is love, and to "Pray always" (Lk 18:1) is to love always.
The Christian grows spiritually through the life of prayer. A classic way to distinguish among phases of growth is three-fold: beginners start on the "purgative way", later comes the "illuminative way" with "affective prayer", and eventually one may experience the "unitive way". See Doyle book in References, below. Christians who have been especially helpful in developing an understanding of prayer include St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, both Doctors of the Roman Catholic Church. In the purgative way, the Christian attempts to leave behind a life of sin, for "sin is iniquity" (Jn 3:4). The Christian is enjoined to recall that "my sin is always before me" (Psalms 51:5). Growth toward holiness is ongoing, as the Apostle writes "he that is holy let him be sanctified still" (Apoc 22:11). Next, in the illuminative way, the soul seeks the imitation of Christ to "have the light of life" (Jn 8:12). There is a famous book by Thomas à Kempis titled The Imitation of Christ. While in purgative prayer one is mostly engaged in vocal prayer, in the illuminative way one tends to be more affective along the lines suggested by St. Therese, above. Affective prayer of this sort may best permit us to fulfill the command "always to pray and not to faint" (Lk 18:1). Last, in the unitive way the soul now seeks to say "I live now not I; but Christ livith in me!" (Gal 2:20). For Roman Catholics, the Eucharist is a key expression of this union with Jesus.
Other religions may share aspects of this seeking of union with God.
Christian Science Prayer
Christian Science teaches that prayer is a spiritualization of thought or an understanding of God and of the nature of the underlying spiritual creation. Adherents believe that this can result in healing, by bringing spiritual reality (the "Kingdom of Heaven" in Biblical terms) into clearer focus in the human scene.
The world as it appears to the senses is regarded as a distorted version of the world of spiritual ideas: the latter is the only true reality. Prayer can heal the distortion. The analogy might be made with tuning a musical instrument that is out of key, cleaning a window that has become clouded over, or bringing a lens into focus.
Christian Scientists believe that prayer does not change the spiritual creation but gives a clearer view of it, and the result appears in the human scene as healing: the human picture adjusts to coincide more nearly with the divine reality. Prayer works through love: the recognition of God's creation as spiritual, intact and inherently lovable. Christian Scientists consider that this is the way Christ Jesus healed. Their aim is to reinstate the element of healing which, they believe, was lost with early Christianity.
They cite such Bible texts as Mark 11: 22-24 and Mark 16: 17-18 in support of their contention that Christian faith demands demonstration in healing (According to Christian Science there are not two creations, a spiritual and a material, but only one spiritual creation which is incorrectly perceived as material--in biblical terms we "see through a glass darkly").
The more faith a person has in God, the less faith they will have in any other supposed power and the more likely they are to be able to heal, according to this teaching. An important point in Christian Science is that the healing of sin is more important than the healing of physical disease, and that prayer and the moral regeneration of one's life go hand-in-hand (Christian Science teaches that while disease may be a result of sin or wrong-doing it is not necessarily so--it may equally be the result of fear, or ignorance of God's power and goodness).
The chapter on "Prayer" in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, gives a full account of healing through prayer, while the testimonies at the end of the book are written by people who claim to have been healed through spiritual understanding.
Christian Scientists claim no monopoly on the application of God's healing power through prayer, and welcome it wherever it occurs.
Epistemological issues
Geoffrey K. Mondello (see References below) believes that a mystical experience of God is real and provable, and is possible due to the claimed fact that God exists. He holds that given the reality and logic of writers such as St. John of the Cross, religious mystical experience is not irrational exuberance but is rather "a profoundly rational experience" with consequences for the structure of knowledge.
A dimension of this influence on knowledge is the extent to which the purgative process rectifies our relationship to God which "has become, as it were, eccentric; that is to say, God is no longer central to ordinary consciousness
See also
External links
- Anglican Worship
- Sacred Space a daily prayer site by the Irish Jesuits, using the Ignatian tradition, a branch of Catholic spirituality dating from the sixteenth century
"Prayer in Christianity"