Describe the Different Types of Personal Prayer Within Christianity and Evaluate the Importance of Prayer in the Life of Adherents.

853 Words4 Pages
Prayer is communication with God, so as Christians it is important that it is more than just formal, memorised prayers but you must speak to God, telling the Lord in our own words what we think and feel. Prayer is an essential part of Christians lives and has been since its earliest days. It is the crucial component of the Christian faith as it is the tradition of communication with God. The role of personal prayer rituals plays a very significant role in the tradition since Christian’s model their lives on the example of Jesus. Personal prayer is the prayer of an individual. It sources from the depths of the heart of the person. It can be inspired by liturgical or community prayer. But it is personal and particular to that person. Personal prayer can be in words. But it can also take the form of "inexpressible groanings" ( speaking in tongues ) as the Holy Spirit may guide the soul. There are two major categories of personal devotion in Christianity, traditional and formal prayer and informal and spontaneous prayer. Traditional and formal types of personal for example, Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer are more commonly used in certain communities. Informal and spontaneous prayers on the other hand are widely used by adherents across the spectrum of Christian denominations Traditional and formal prayer covers a wide range of occasions. The best known and most widely used of these prayers is the Lord's Prayer also known as the Our Father. This prayer is significant because it is the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Accordingly, it is widely used throughout all Christian denominations both in formal liturgies and in personal prayer. The importance of the Our Father has been deconstructed and analysed as an indicator of how Christians should approach prayer in general. From this single prayer the elements of praise, petition and repentance can be found

More about Describe the Different Types of Personal Prayer Within Christianity and Evaluate the Importance of Prayer in the Life of Adherents.

Open Document