What is prayer?
Put in very simple terms, Prayer is the communication between God and his children, 'you and me'! We are all Gods children and in one sense, that is all there is to it. However, prayer can sometimes seem difficult, and dare I say even a little daunting, we may even feel unworthy of asking God to answer our seemingly mundane requests, but we would do well to remember that God actually wants to speak with his children.
Prayer however should not always necessarily be by words alone; and often it will be a touching of our spirit, with the Holy Spirit of God, which leads us into relationship
with the Father. This means that even when we are unable to put prayers into words, we can still open our hearts, our thoughts and our emotions to him. But how can this be, you might ask? Why would God allow himself to be pestered by millions and millions of prayer requests from people like you and me?
The answer is because prayer is a gift, a gift from God, giving each and every one of us the opportunity to address him directly. Moreover, not only is prayer a gift in itself, but God answers prayers with further gifts.
‘If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’. (Luke 11:13)
St John tells us; 'And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.' (1 John 5:14)
It is very clear that God invites all of us to pray.
So always remember that the gift of prayer and I use the word gift deliberately because it is just that a gift, which is given out of God's love and generosity, a gift given by a Father to his children and as such as Jesus told us we need not fear him.
Why should we pray?
We should pray, because prayer brings the power of God into the situations in life that we are concerned about. Prayer is one of the ways that God in which God is able to work in our lives and in the lives of other people, and it opens new possibilities. So we can freely bring all of our concerns, our thoughts and desires, our hurts, our failures and our needs to him, knowing that he is our loving Father and he wants to hear from us.
Prayer is a very important part of the life and ministry of our parishes. So if you or your loved ones would like to be remembered in the prayers of the parish please contact us by completing the form, which can be found on our requests for prayer page. Please give your name address and brief details of why you, a member of your family or someone else needs to be included in our cycle of prayer, we only ask this so that we are able to offer specific intentions and if you do not want to give us this detail that also fine, but we do need names.
Put in very simple terms, Prayer is the communication between God and his children, 'you and me'! We are all Gods children and in one sense, that is all there is to it. However, prayer can sometimes seem difficult, and dare I say even a little daunting, we may even feel unworthy of asking God to answer our seemingly mundane requests, but we would do well to remember that God actually wants to speak with his children.
Prayer however should not always necessarily be by words alone; and often it will be a touching of our spirit, with the Holy Spirit of God, which leads us into relationship
with the Father. This means that even when we are unable to put prayers into words, we can still open our hearts, our thoughts and our emotions to him. But how can this be, you might ask? Why would God allow himself to be pestered by millions and millions of prayer requests from people like you and me?
The answer is because prayer is a gift, a gift from God, giving each and every one of us the opportunity to address him directly. Moreover, not only is prayer a gift in itself, but God answers prayers with further gifts.
‘If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’. (Luke 11:13)
St John tells us; 'And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.' (1 John 5:14)
It is very clear that God invites all of us to pray.
So always remember that the gift of prayer and I use the word gift deliberately because it is just that a gift, which is given out of God's love and generosity, a gift given by a Father to his children and as such as Jesus told us we need not fear him.
Why should we pray?
We should pray, because prayer brings the power of God into the situations in life that we are concerned about. Prayer is one of the ways that God in which God is able to work in our lives and in the lives of other people, and it opens new possibilities. So we can freely bring all of our concerns, our thoughts and desires, our hurts, our failures and our needs to him, knowing that he is our loving Father and he wants to hear from us.
Prayer is a very important part of the life and ministry of our parishes. So if you or your loved ones would like to be remembered in the prayers of the parish please contact us by completing the form, which can be found on our requests for prayer page. Please give your name address and brief details of why you, a member of your family or someone else needs to be included in our cycle of prayer, we only ask this so that we are able to offer specific intentions and if you do not want to give us this detail that also fine, but we do need names.
