What is prayer?
Simply stated, prayer is a conversation with God. God invites us to speak to God as "Our Father" – to meet God at the centre of who we are and to be linked to the amazing love that is revealed in Jesus Christ. Prayer transforms individual lives, connects us to the community of God’s people and links us to God’s creative and compassionate work in the world.
How can I pray?
Prayer is about turning our hearts and minds to God, who is always turned towards us. We can say what we think and feel in prayer – we can be completely honest. Just as we can communicate with each other in many different ways, prayer can take many different forms. Being prayerful can be expressed in silence – simply resting in God’s presence. Or it could be listening to a piece of music that lifts your heart or inspires your emotions. All things that enable us to look outside ourselves, considering the viewpoints and good of others, can be open doors to prayer – whether it's silence, music, art, literature, a long walk or giving or receiving a gift and so on.
Prayer needn’t be complicated. It could be just a few simple words of thanks or to express our feelings to God. Or you may find that starting with prayers that others people are also praying is helpful. Check out these resources from the Church of England for Daily Prayer.
In prayer we need to be ready to listen – to be receptive and open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to what God might have to sayt to us. Sometimes we feel that something has happened when we pray - at other times nothing seems to happen. But prayer is about consciously returning our hearts and minds to God, so that our sense of God’s presence grows as our relationship with God deepens.
