Getting started in prayer can be confusing, and sometimes difficult. Taylor explains a form of prayer that Jesus taught in the Our Father, and how we can use it to turn awkward silence with God into a conversation.

Howdy! My name is Taylor Schroll and welcome back to Beyond the Pew. Two weeks ago, Alyssa started off our series on prayer by talking about what it is and why it’s important. Last week, Jennifer came and talked about different ways to pray. Both of these are things I knew as a young person. I knew that prayer was important and I knew different ways to pray like going to Mass and saying the Our Father, saying the Hail Mary. I knew that having a personal prayer life with God, being able to have a personal conversation with Him was important. I just didn’t know what that looked like. I’d sit down in the Chapel or I’d sit down in my house and I’d just kind of . . .
*stares blankly*

. . . Time like I just had! Because I didn’t know what to say. I was reading in the book of Luke. In Chapter 11, the Apostles have already been with Jesus for, you know, 10 or 11 chapters or so. They’ve been walking with Him, they’ve been seeing Him go off and pray and have that personal time with His Father. And they walk up to Him as He was praying and they say, Lord, teach us how to pray. [tweetthis]Turn awkward silence with God into a conversation. #prayer #pray #christian[/tweetthis]

And it’s at this point Jesus teaches them, teaches us, the Our Father, the most popular prayer that we have. Our Father, who art in heaven… And in this prayer that Jesus was teaching us, He wasn’t just teaching us these words to say and repeat over and over again (which is a good thing to do), but it wasn’t just that. He wanted to teach us a form of prayer.

He starts with praise. God, you’re awesome, you’re mighty, you’re powerful. Holy is Your name. So when we enter into personal prayer, maybe we should start there. He continues in saying, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Forgive us of our sins. This is the second part of prayer that we need to have: this confession. We need to realize that we’ve done wrong and want to correct that, and allow God to help us correct those things. These types of prayer are found in the Our Father.

Then somebody taught me how to follow this form of prayer by using the rosary. So instead of saying the Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s, you’d start by using this form that we learned from the Our Father.

Start with praise. God, you’re awesome, you’re powerful, you’re the Lord, you’re my king. All these things we hear in Mass at the Gloria. We praise you, we bless you, we adore you. Just starting there and acknowledging that there is a God and we’re not Him. Starting in this place of humility.

1. First Decade: We go to the next one and we say ten things of confession. God, I messed up here today. Just being able to look back on our day and see the things that we’ve done wrong, see the things that we’ve missed, and just asking for God to help us on the next day. So we go through ten of those.

2. Second Decade: Then the next part we go through Thanksgiving. God, I’m so thankful for the wife and children you’ve given me. I’m thankful for this job you’ve given me, helping me provide for my family. Name ten things you are thankful for.

3. Third Decade: And the next part is petition. We often start here in prayer. We say God, help me on this test, help me to do well at work, help me in this talk I’m about to give, help me in this board meeting that I have coming up, but we often start there and actually that should be the last section of our prayer.

4. Fourth Decade: Our next one is going to be petitions for other people. God, help my wife and what she’s going through, help my children as they’re beginning school, help my friend who has cancer to be healed and to feel better.

5. Fifth Decade:
And then finally, we get to the fifth one and this is where we ask for our petitions for ourselves. God, help me to be a better husband, a better father. And we go through ten of those as well, asking petitions for ourselves.

This is a great form that I learned on how to use a rosary to help start that personal relationship with God and to follow that form of prayer that we learned in the Our Father. [tweetthis]Start #prayer by praising God in a place of humility. Confess your sins to Him. Thank Him. Close in petition. #pray[/tweetthis]

Next week Matt will be here talking to us about how to pray with your kids. So, until then, God bless!