Prayers
What is prayer?
“Making ourselves present to the presence of God” (Cloud of the Unknowing)
“To think of God with love” (Mother Teresa)
Prayer is simply a conversation with God—just like that daily conversation with someone we love. God wants to be close to us and have an intimate, safe, trust-based relationship with us. As with any conversation, we need to both talk and listen when we are praying.
Children need to be given the language of prayer and taught how to be still so that they can listen to God.
They should be taught to pray in a range of different ways and for a variety of purposes. They should know that prayer can be silent or said aloud; prayers can be formal or informal; they can be learnt or made up. We can pray with our voices, our hearts or our minds.
There are 4 main types of prayer: Praise, Thanksgiving, Repentance and Intercession
| Informal | Formal examples |
Praise | Praising God for all His goodness | The Magnificat, The Glory Be |
Thanksgiving | Saying thank you for our many gifts. | Grace after meals |
Repentance | Saying sorry for our sins | Act of Contrition |
Intercession | Asking for ourselves and for others. Asking God to help us to be the best we can, to look after people etc. | Grace before meals The Hail Mary |
The Prayer of St Francis - A reflection by the staff of St Antony's
