Our reason tells us that as creatures we are obliged to pray to God, in order to adore Him, to thank Him, to ask Him for what we need, and to seek His pardon for our sins. Faith teaches us the same truth. The Bible abounds with references to man's obligation to pray. And in order to give us an example, Our Divine Redeemer prayed while He was on earth. Sometimes He spent even entire nights in prayer. Two of the most striking incidents of His passion were acts of prayer His prayer in the Garden asking that, if possible, the cup of suffering might pass away, followed immediately by His sublime act of resignation to His Father's will, and His prayer on the cross, asking pardon for those who were putting Him to death.
Although prayer is intended not only to ask God for favors but also to praise and to thank Him and to make reparation for sin, we often use the word in the restricted sense of asking benefits, whether spiritual or temporal. This is the prayer of petition. To this prayer Christ has attached unfailing efficacy, provided it is offered with the necessary qualities, for He said: "Amen, amen, I say to you if you ask the Father anything in my name, He will give it to you" (John, 16,23). Of course, for the fulfillment of this promise we must pray humbly and perseveringly, and confidingly. Sometimes God does not grant us a favor the first time we ask; He wishes us to continue to implore His mercy. Moreover, we cannot expect Him to grant us a temporal favor, such as health and riches, if he foresees that it would be harmful to our soul, any more than we could expect a mother to give her child a knife, for which he is crying, since she knows he would injure himself. Finally, we must remember that Our Lord spoke of prayer offered for ourselves. We can and should pray for others, and we can often obtain for them precious favors; but infallible efficacy is attached to prayer only when a person prays for himself.
Through prayer we can procure for ourselves immeasurable spiritual blessings the power to overcome temptations, no matter how violent, the grace to increase in love for God, and above all, perseverance in the state of grace and eternal salvation. St. Alphonsus Liguori, who is called the Doctor of Prayer because he wrote so much about it and practiced it so ardently, did not hesitate to say: "He who prays will be saved, he who does not pray will be lost."
Naturally we pray when we go to Mass or receive the sacraments or perform some other religious duty. But we should not limit our prayers to these occasions. In the morning we should pray for God's guidance during the day; at night we should pray for forgiveness of any faults or sins we may have committed in the course of the day and for protection of soul and body during the night. Strictly speaking, it is not a sin to omit morning and night prayers, provided a person prays at some other time; but it is a sin to neglect prayer entirely. The most appropriate place for prayer is the church, where Our Lord is present in the Blessed Sacrament, but we can pray in any place. In time of temptation our first thought should be to pray for divine assistance; above all, frequently in the course of the day we should raise our mind and heart to God in brief but fervent aspirations. Any Catholic who fills his life with prayer in this manner will be living up to the injunction of Our Lord, who said that we must always pray and not lose heart (Luke, 18:1).
Mental prayer, which is also called meditation, constitutes one of the most effective means toward sanctification. Hence, the rules of all religious orders call for frequent periods of meditation sometimes as much as two hours every day. It can be practiced by the members of the laity also, and from it they can derive great spiritual profit. Many good Catholic laypersons devote fifteen minutes or a halfhour to meditation daily, choosing particularly as the subject of their contemplation and prayer the life and the teachings of Our Blessed Lord. Meditation is especially beneficial in the morning, when we can look forward to the difficulties of the day in a spirit of faith and humbly ask God for light and grace to do His will in all things.
Vocal prayers are also recommended by the Church, and many of them, such as the rosary and the litanies, are richly indulgenced. However, it would be a mistake to imagine that the more vocal prayers a person recites, the holier he is. It is better to say a few vocal prayers slowly and attentively than to recite a large number hurriedly and with little attention.
Spiritual reading is one of the most Practical helps toward praying as we should. By this we mean the reading of books about Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Saints, the practice of virtue, etc. In every Catholic home there should be devotional books on hand for the members of the family; above all, there should be a Bible, and the members of the family, old and young, should be accustomed to read it regularly. It is a beautiful custom when all the members of a family assemble at a set time dailyfor example, after the evening meal to hear a portion of the Bible read by the father or the mother or one of the children. Pope Leo XIII granted an indulgence of 300 days to all Catholics who spend at least fifteen minutes in reading Holy Scripture with the reverence due to the word of God and after the manner of spiritual reading.
The sign of the cross, with which we Catholics begin and end our prayers, is not merely our profession of faith in the Holy Trinity and the Redemption, but is also our petition for the blessing of the three divine Persons on our lives and actions. Hence, we should always make the sign of the cross reverently. It is disedifying to see this holy sign made so carelessly and so rapidly that one can hardly recognize what it is intended to be. The Church grants an indulgence of 100 days to the faithful as often as they make the sign of the cross with the prescribed words, and 300 days whenever they make it with holy water.
There is a special value attached to prayer recited in common by several persons for example, a family, a sodality, a congregation because Our Lord promised His special blessing on prayer of this kind when He said: "Where two or three are gathered together for my sake, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew, 18:20).