Ever since I can remember I had knew how to pray. As time went by I learned many prayers from the” Our Father” to the Act of Contrition and I wondered the purpose of all of these prayers. As I made the change from a child to where I am now I asked myself,” Is prayer only about asking God for things?”. Well according to http://catholicism.about.com the word "pray" comes from the Latin word precari, which simply means to entreat or ask. But in the eighth grade as I was preparing for my Confirmation I found out that there is more to prayer than I once thought. In the eighth grade I learned that there are 4 types of prayer: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication. According to the book “Path through Catholicism” by Mark Link the prayers each focus on the different aspects of prayer: Adoration- Focuses on God’s glory;
Contrition- Focuses on God’s mercy; Thanksgiving- Focuses on God’s goodness; Supplication-
Focuses on God’s concern. Another piece of information I found out was that we should have the attitudes of humility and perseverance when praying. When I learned this it opened my mind and heart to many things and brought forth a whole new opinion of prayer. Prayer was not only asking God for things but it was thinking about and talking with God. I began to use prayer as a symbol of my love for God. My prayer no longer had me just asking God for things but having a conversation with God ; thanking him and asking for forgiveness. A prayer can be done in a few minutes but it has a huge influence on us.
Prayer is a time of opening our hearts to God. And God is always listening but he will give us answers that we were not expecting. We are not alone and God is always present in our lives though we sometimes forget it. Another lesson that I learned was that prayer can bring strength. Sometimes we