Prayer glorifies our good God. It is praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication and intercession to God.

 

"When I prayed, I was new," wrote a great theologian of Christian antiquity, "but when I stopped praying, I became old."

Prayer is the way to renewal and spiritual life. Prayer is aliveness to God. Prayer is strength, refreshment, and joy. Through the grace of God and our disciplined efforts prayer lifts us up from our isolation to a conscious, loving communion with God in which everything is experienced in a new light. Prayer becomes a personal dialogue with God, a spiritual breathing of the soul, a foretaste of the joys of God's kingdom.

 

 

As we pray deeply within our hearts we grow in prayer. By the grace of God we suddenly catch a glimpse of the miracle of the presence of the Holy Spirit working within us. At first it is only a spark but later it becomes a flame freeing and energizing our whole being. To experience the fire of God's holy love, to give it space within us to do its cleansing and healing work as a breath of the Holy Spirit, and to use it as light and power for daily living -- such are the goals as well as the fruits of true prayer.

Without daily prayer we become weak. For most Christians prayer is our “daily bread” since many of us cannot come to Mass for the Bread of Life. Daily prayer promotes spiritual communion with God. God has no need of our prayers but the desire to pray is a gift from God. We need Him to live in Christ Jesus.

To pray only at Mass says we only think about God one day a week and maybe occasionally during the week. This is not how we were made; this is not what we were made for. We were made for union with God and this union is salvation for us. The more we pray the more our burdens lighten, the more we understand life and we have the assurance that God walks with us.