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Understand the essence of prayer in Christianity, exploring various forms including personal, public, liturgical, vigils, and meditation. Discover the importance and impact prayer has on the Christian faith.
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Christian Prayer Aim: To know what prayer is, to learn about and experience different forms of prayer and to understand why prayer is important for Christians
What are all these people doing? • Who are they talking to? • What are they saying to God?
What is Prayer? Prayer is communication with God. Christians can pray anywhere at anytime. It can be asking God for something, thanking God or just asking Him a question. Prayer does not need to be formal, it can be like chatting to a friend. For Christians, praying is very important, they believe it helps them to become better people and makes the world a better place for all.
Personal Prayer Personal Prayer is when Christians pray on their own. Christians may pray aloud or they may pray silently.
Prayer is time spent enjoying God’s company (or God’s presence), a bit like you would do with your best friend: Asking questions, talking about your family and friends, wondering about the future, saying sorry, saying thank you, listening to what they have to say and not worrying about silent moments, just being glad to be with them.
Prayer Personal Prayer Ellie prays in her bedroom. Others might pray while they walk the dog, or when they are cycling to school or driving to work! You don't have to pray out loud, you can pray in your mind, or just be quiet and listen.
Public Prayer When Christians meet together, they will often make time to pray. This is because Jesus said that when Christians gather to pray in His name, He is there; God hears and answers.
Public Prayer In church, public prayers are often led by one person, who may read a set prayer, or pray out loud on behalf of everyone. Usually this is the priest of the Vicar. Everyone joins in by thinking about what is being prayed, joining together for singing and saying the various responses; Amen, etc. The congregation/gathering will join together to say communal prayers. One of the best known is the prayer that Jesus taught his followers; called the Lord's Prayer.
Liturgical Worship Liturgical worship is performed by Roman Catholics and some Anglican denominations. Liturgical worship follows a particular order each week. Mass and religious services like this will have a book or pamphlet to guide the congregation or gathering; in the form of a missal, missalette or order of service. Many of you will be familiar with this type of worship.
Vigils Vigils are night prayers. We know from the Bible that during his ministry, Jesus often prayed at night. Christians like to pray at night because it is quiet and peaceful. Churches may organise a vigil if it is a special time in the Church year or if they are praying for something very important. For example; if someone from the community is very ill or harmed/injured, there may be a vigil held.
Meditation or Meditative Prayer During meditation or meditative prayer Christians will sit quietly, normally alone, and focus on God. Some Christians will use words of the Bible to help them concentrate their mind on God.
LET’S MEDITATE! • Sit still and listen to the music. Try to think about God. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PIBMLvcAzc
Positions for Prayer The Bible and Christian tradition describes many different positions/postures when praying. They are all used by Christians today.
Prayer In the Bible, Jesus tells us how to pray
What Did Jesus Teach About Prayer? Where can we pray? The Bible tells us that Jesus prayed in many different places - the Synagogue, the Temple, the countryside - even in a garden. His actions and words tells us that sometimes, it is important to find a quiet place to pray to God.
Our Father In his best known prayer, the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught Christians to call God "Our Father in heaven.” Like a loving father, God listens to our prayers and always shows His love. Sometimes, this may not always be exactly in the way that we want, or we may feel that He does not answer our prayer in the way we expect… sometimes, even God has to use the word ‘no’!
Let's look at The Lord's Prayer Our Father in heaven Help us to respect your name Be our king! Have your way on earth Like you do in heaven Give us today the things we need Forgive us for the things we do wrong As we forgive people who have hurt us Help us not to do wrong things And protect us from harm For everything is yours – all the power and glory in the world Now and for always I really mean this prayer. Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom And the power and the glory For ever and ever Amen
A Life of Prayer Some Christians want to spend their whole lives in prayer. They may do this by joining a Christian community and are called monks or nuns.
Now we are going to write our own prayer • Think about what we have learned that people ask God for or say to God in prayer • We can tell God about anything or ask God to help us with anything we want
Task Christians believe that prayer is important. Write a letter to Alan the Alien explaining what prayer is and different ways in which Christians can pray. Alan really needs to know why Christians pray too!
