I’ve been thinking about a problem that a few different people have brought up to me regarding the Catholic Church, that I agree with what they’re saying and that I think I can offer some really basic advice to anyone that has a misconception regarding how to pray.
The problem with the Catholic church that’s been brought to my attention is that many Catholics feel as if prayer and worshiping God is a token system where if you pay in a certain amount God gives you an equal return on your investment.
I haven’t studied exactly how people are being taught this with the way the Catholic Church teaches religion, but I’m coming to understand that this may be one of the fundamental diversions between Catholicism and Christianity and if anyone took the time to really dive into how this is occurring I’d be extremely interested.
E.x. of the problem: “If I say 10 Hail Mary’s a night I’ll be blessed!
Another angle to view this from, I was talking to an individual about a problem in their life. They stated that they feel as if when they pray to God when they need help they don’t receive it.
The problem is, God doesn’t view building a real relationship with him as a math equation but instead as if you’re building a human relationship.
In a relationship with another person you may at times be able to rely on them for favors, and they should in turn be able to rely on you but this is only because you share good times together when neither of you needed help.
in the same way, if you want to turn to God for help, you should be doing so on the basis of an already established relationship with him.
You should also request help sparingly, as with a human friend.
As far as how to establish this relationship, I think speaking and addressing God as if he is a person sitting in front of you is a good approach to take.
You could be whispering or even just thinking through words as if you are talking but the point is to be thinking of talking to God as more than saying a daily set of prayers in certain quantities.
I don’t want to downplay the importance and value of reciting the same prayer over and over. I say certain daily prayers and I think it’s a valuable practice.
Various prayers are powerful for different reasons.
For example, at least to me, the words in the Hail Mary can positively reinforce the idea of respecting high quality women with, “grace”.
Notice I said high quality women, so if someone is twerking while standing on top of a car or scissoring another women at the grammys they probably don’t fit into this category.
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Note: I don’t want to get caught in a…. “pride trap”? of giving spiritual advice as someone who is by no means an expert.
All I’m trying to get at is, God is like us so it’s obvious that developing an ongoing relationship with him should be approached similarly as doing so with a human friend.
-Kyle