How Can I Learn to Pray?

We are pleased and blessed to have a guest post from Michelle DeRusha who wrote this post for Prodigal Magazine. Please continue to read the rest of her post by following the link.

How Can I Learn to Pray?

by Michelle DeRusha

English: Oil painting, “Praying Hands” by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a kid and teenager, I relied on two basic prayers:

begging prayers largely related to algebra and boys,

and the prayers I’d memorized in Saturday morning catechism classes: the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Act of Contrition.

In college I stopped believing in God, so I stopped praying altogether.

When I came back to faith in my late thirties I struggled with prayer.

Often I forgot to pray at all, and when I did remember, I worried that I wasn’t doing it right. I didn’t talk to God like he was an intimate friend or a beloved parent. Instead I approached him like I would a CEO – politely and respectfully, but on-guard.

I felt like I needed to be on my best behavior with God.

I also worried that I didn’t use the right language, that my prayers weren’t fancy enough. Maybe I’m supposed to be more verbose. Maybe I should try to make my prayers more eloquent, I fretted, especially after I noticed that my small group leaders often concluded their prayers with particular phrases, like: “I ask this in your son Jesus’ name.” They sounded more formal and certainly fancier and more articulate than I did when I prayed.

As I’ve grown in my faith during these last few years, I’ve come to worry less about both the style and the substance of my prayers. Nowadays I’m inclined toward a broader, more fluid definition of prayer.

Continue to read the rest of Michelle’s post at Prodigal Magazine and find out the way to learn to pray.