The 5 ‘W’s of Prayer

By Joshua Elias & Caitlyn Ang

WHAT is prayer?

Prayer is how we communicate with God. St John of Damascene, a canonised saint of the Church, says, “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God”.

To pray is to have “a vital and personal relationship with the living God” (CCC 2558-2559), for prayer is how we communicate with God.

Christian prayer is grounded in a very specific conception of God: a personal God who encounters his creatures in love. Prayer is a gift, given to us by God.

When we pray, we bring our deepest, innermost self. It is essential that when we pray, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable; to pray from the depths of our hearts. “According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.” (CCC2562).

Since it is through Prayer that we communicate with God, Prayer is also a conversation with God. Just as in any conversation, we need to actively listen to who we are conversing with. This means that in Prayer, we have to be intentional in letting God speak to us and be attentive to what He is saying to us. By this conversation we call Prayer, we enter into a relationship with God.

Of course, we can’t physically see someone having a conversation with God, but that doesn’t make it seem any less real. Conversing with God is different from conversing with anyone else. During prayer, we not only need to be attentive to the words God speaks to us, but also how we feel. If you were to ask any Christian, part of this process also requires us to consider and reflect through what we are feeling.

In a way, Prayer takes us away from ourselves without disregarding ourselves. Prayer requires us to put God in the center, but not at the expense of ourselves. God does not require us to leave our baggage at the door, but instead wants us to bring it to Him.

 

WHY should I pray?

Jesus invites us into a relationship with Him even before we are interested in our faith. As with any relationship with any person, it requires quality time, vulnerability and dedication if we desire for the relationship to deepen. Prayer allows us to participate in God’s work in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. Prayer enables us to listen in to God’s desires for us, and we become more acutely aware of how God’s hand is moving in our lives.

Prayer doesn’t change who God is, but it changes many other things. It changes the way we see the situations around us, it opens our eyes to the greater possibility of God’s plan working around us instead of simply seeing it through our own biases and fears.

In CCC2697 it says that Prayer is the life of a new heart, but we cannot pray “at all times” if we do not pray at specific times, consciously willing it. These are the special times of Christian prayer, both in intensity and duration.

 

WHO can pray?

You may think that only Christians can pray to God, but that is not true! There are many Christian converts who only began their journey in the faith later on in life, and they all had to start somewhere! Understandably, it may feel very awkward and embarrassing if it is your first time praying. We might even feel unworthy to even talk to God at times. However, God calls us to just come to Him, regardless of who we are. God desires to father all people, so it is possible for anyone to quieten down and pray to Him, to be attentive to what He has to say.

Even if you are not a Christian, feel free to begin to pray – to have a conversation with God. It might feel weird at first; it may feel a bit like meditation and that you are just talking to yourself.

In Isaiah 40:3, it says “ A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”” We are invited to pave the way for ourselves, that we might move out of the barren land towards where God is. If we take our first step, God will take the other 99. Even in the silence, God is hearing us. We will slowly begin to see our thoughts and disposition change!

 

WHEN can I pray?

You may have heard people say: “Oh, I have been struggling to find time to pray”. In the past, Jews believed that they could only meet God when they were in the temple. However, in John 4:21-24, Jesus talks about how we will come to worship in spirit and truth, and no longer just on the “mountain and in Jerusalem”.

Prayer does not always have to take up huge pockets of time, but happens whenever we desire to take a pause to start a conversation with God. Short prayers are not any less; the shortest prayer is the Petrine prayer, “Lord, save me”. If we take the definition of prayer as the raising of one’s mind and heart to God, our short humble prayer of reaching out to God is still a prayer.

However, as we grow in our faith, it begins to matter less the duration of the prayer, and matters more how much time we prioritise for our prayer time. In Psalm 50:15, we are called to not be afraid to call on the Lord in our moment of distress, as we can pray anywhere and anytime.

 

WHERE can I pray?

The Church, the house of God, is one of the best places we can go to prayer. It is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community (the Mass!).

It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. In Churches, we have adoration rooms that are open to the public, where personal prayer can be had. Unfortunately, such rooms have been closed in Singapore since the pandemic hit. There is no fixed way to adore the Lord. You can just sit before Him in the Blessed Sacrament and converse with Him about your day. Or you may even start journaling whatever thoughts that come.

For personal prayer outside of a church, what is important should also be your disposition and the ability for you to be still. Different people may find different ways that allow them to be away from distractions and to be still to listen to God.

However, as Jesus said, we no longer need to pray only in church. It is more about our disposition. In church, our disposition is clear in that we are here to worship God. In the situation where getting to church is not convenient, we can also go to different places to pray. The essentials of the where, is a place where we can be uninterrupted in a quiet space to converse with God. It can be as simple as finding a quiet space in your room or taking a walk through the park!

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