1. Prayer

2. What is a Prayer?
It is the raising of one’s mind and
heart to God or the requesting of good
things from God.

3. How do we pray?
When we pray, we do not speak from the
height of our pride but we pray with a
humble and contrite heart. Only when
we humbly acknowledge that we do not
know how to pray, then we are ready to
freely receive the gift of prayer.

4. When should a person pray?
At all time
In the morning
At meal time
At night

5. What are the
various ways we pray?
• Vocal
• Meditation
• Contemplation

6. What is vocal prayer?
It is an expression of what is in our
hearts & we offer it to God as a
complaint, petition, praise or thanks.
Ex. Hymns, Psalms, Our Father.

7. What is meditation?
It is the lifting of my heart to God and
telling Him that I am quite open to
what God wants to say to me through
what I have heard or seen. It is a quest.
The mind seeks to understand why &
how.

8. What is contemplation?
It is the humble poor devotion of a
creature that drops all masks, believes
in love and seeks God from heart.

10. The Our Father
• 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. AMEN.

11. What is the other name for
Our Father?
The Lord’s Prayer.

12. How did the Our Father
come about?
The Our Father came about at the
request of one of Jesus’ disciples, who
saw his Master praying and wanted to
learn from Jesus himself how to pray
correctly.

13. What position does the Our
Father hold among prayers?
It occupies the most prominent place
because it leads directly into the heart
of our Father. The early Christians
recited it three times a day. We too
must ensure that the day does not pass
away without saying Our Father.

14. What is the structure of
Our Father?
It contains a short preface and seven
petitions. The first three petitions relate
to God and the right way of serving
him. The last four petitions present
our basic human needs to
Our Father.

15. What does the Father
remind us of?
It reminds us that God is our Father, so
good and so worthy of veneration that
there is no earthly father like Him; and
that we, therefore ought to pray to Him
with childlike reverence, love and
confidence.

16. Why do we say “Our Father”
and not my Father?
Because, God being the father of all
men, we are His children, and should
therefore love one another as brothers
and pray for one another.

17. If the Father is in heaven, where
is that heaven?
Heaven is not above the clouds.
Heaven does not designate a place but
indicates God’s presence which is not
bound by space and time.

18. What do we ask for in the 1st petition
“Hallowed be thy name”?
We ask that the name of God may
never be profaned or blasphemed, but
that God may be rightly known, loved
and honoured by us and by all men.

19. What do we ask for in the
2nd petition “Thy Kingdom come”?
That the kingdom of God, the Church,
may be more and more extended upon
earth.
That the kingdom of divine grace and
love may now be established in our
hearts.
That after this life we may all be
admitted into the kingdom of heaven.

20. What do we ask for in the
3rd petition “Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven”?
We ask that we and all men may do the
will of God on earth as faithfully and
cheerfully as the angels and saints do it
in heaven. And we profess that in all
things we submit ourselves to the holy
will of God.

21. What do we ask for in the 4th petition
“Give us this day our daily bread”?
We ask that God would give us all that
is daily necessary for our soul and
body. We should ask only for our
necessities and not for riches in
abundance,

22. What do we ask in the 5th petition “Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us”?
The mercy that we show to others and
the mercy that we ourselves seek is
indivisible. Many people have life long
struggle with their inability to forgive.
If we ourselves are not merciful and do
not forgive one another, God’s mercy
will not reach our hearts.

23. What do we ask for in the 6th petition
“Lead us not into temptation”?
Every day and every hour we are in the
danger of falling into sin and saying
NO to God. So here we beg God not to
leave us defenseless.
Jesus, who was tempted himself knows
that we are weak human beings and
that we have little strength of our own
to oppose the evil one.
This petition teaches us to trust in
God’s assistance at the hour of trial.

25. • By our flesh – the flesh lusts against
the spirit
• By the world – vain pomp, bad
example.
• By the devil – waiting like a roaring
lion
By whom are we tempted?

26. Temptation in itself is not a sin but to
expose ourselves or to yield to it is a
sin.
Is temptation in itself a sin?

27. We must remain alert and pray.
What must we do in order that we
may not yield?

28. • To keep us humble
• To try our faithfulness
• To increase our zeal for virtue.
Why does God permit us to be
tempted?

29. This petition brings all the misery of
this world before God and begs
Almighty God to free us from
all evils – the tempter (devil).
What do we ask for in the 7th petition
“Deliver us from evil”?

30. To express by it our own desire and
also our confidence of being heard. It
means “Yes, so be it”
Why do we add the word “Amen”?

31. Jesus
be
with
us
always!
© Romit Alfred