how to pray in roman catholic religion?

Question

I mean how to place hands? should I stand? close my eyes?

Answer 1

+ Prayer +

Prayer is the elevation of the mind and heart to God:
+ In praise of his glory
+ In petition for some desired good
+ In thanksgiving for a good received
+ In intercession for others before God

Through prayer the Christian experiences a communion with God through Christ in the Church.

"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy." (St. Thérèse of Lisieux)

"Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." (St. John Damascene)

But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or "out of the depths" of a humble and contrite heart? (Psalm 130:1)

He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that "we do not know how to pray as we ought," are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. "Man is a beggar before God."

+ Posture +

In Mass, we usually stand in prayer.

Some stand in the orans posture, the gesture of praying with uplifted hands, during the Lord's prayer.

We kneel during the Eucharistic prayer as the bread and wine are changed in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

In private prayer, you can use whatever postion most helps your prayer. You can:

+ Stand with hands uplifted and open, looking up with eyes open. This is the oldest posture for prayer. It is called the orans position, from the Latin word for praying.

I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer… (1 Timothy 2:8)

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed. (John 17:1)

+ Stand with hands clasped at the waist, head bowed, and eyes averted or closed.

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13)

+ Kneel, either with the head up, eyes open, hands open, or with head down, eyes closed, and hands clasped. Kneeling shows simple humility and submission.

The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go. (Matthew 18:26)

After withdrawing about a stone's throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done." (Luke 22-41-42)

+ Sit, head down, eyes averted or closed, and hands clasped.

Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point? (2 Samuel 7:18)

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

It depends on what prayers you are saying. If you are praying by yourself at home any posture would be okay. Maybe you can sit quietly on a chair to read the bible or sit and do your mental prayer or stand during the Angelus which is a prayer said at 12:00 noon. For your Morning offering, you may kneel if you are alone in your room or you may also say it sitting down which ever is better. You may also consult a spiritual director on how you should pray. A religion teacher can also help you out. You may also get a missal for Mass and the missal sometimes tells you when to sit stand, kneel at mass. At Mass there are prescribed postures so you can follow what the people do. If they stand, you also stand. If they sit you sit with them. If they kneel then you may kneel with them. But if you are in church praying alone you may choose to sit or kneel which ever is more helpful for your prayer. You may also ask another Catholic to teach you other prayers but basically prayer is talking to God with love so it doesn't matter what posture you take as long as you can talk to God. Now we have to genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament which is the Real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Maybe ask someone to explain genuflection to you if you need more explanations. You kneel with your right knee when you pass a tabernacle where Jesus is kept. I hope this gives you some tips. God bless

Answer 3

Dont worry about how your posture . Just pray with a sincere and humble heart. That is what pleases God most. Choose whichever posture you are most comfortable praying in. If you are at Mass just take the cue from the others and stand, kneel or sit whenever they do. If you are not comfortable doing that just sit, close your eyes and pray. No one will be offended.
Have you heard of a very powerful Catholic prayer called the Rosary? It is a beautiful prayer that one says with the Mother of God and is directed to God. You could say that prayer in church or even at home. It is called the 'Scourge of Satan' and will protect you from all harm or evil. Here are the fifteen promises of Mother Mary to one who says at least five decades of the Rosary daily:
http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr72/cr72pg35.asp

Here are some miracles of the Rosary:
http://www.fatima.org/apostolate/newsletters/apos/2003/september/ar_sep03pg1.asp

http://www.fatima.org/essentials/whatucando/benifitsaction.asp
All the best!

Answer 4

I don't know how they do things these days but when I was a Catholic in the 1960s and 70s we read our prayers out of a book called a missal. We didn't do free form, make-it-up-as-you-go prayers like Protestants, we read canned prayers from a book and each prayer had an indulgence listed which is time off from purgatory. And in those days Catholics didn't use bibles.

Kneeling with hands folded was preferred posture for prayer.

Things may be different now. Catholic theology is a moving target as we can see by the recent abolition of Limbo.

Incidentally, we were taught as kids that only Catholics go to heaven. Do you still believe that?

Answer 5

You can hold your hands together prayerfully if you like, stand or kneel, close your eyes. The important thing is that you are praying from your heart and that you are honest and sincere with God. You should pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God bless.

Answer 6

You can choose ...

But kneeling is a regular idea.... sort of clasping hands is also pretty regular.... The idea is that when you pray you are asking God for something .... so the thinking is that you might get further at least if assume a begging position. This is not as different to Muzzie faith as you have have thought... except you don't have to face any particular direction. You can leave your eye open or if you are distracted by what you see... you could shut your eyes.

Answer 7

Catholics typically "address" their prayers to God by making the sign of the cross and saying, "In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit" and Catholics typically end their prayers by saying, "Amen" and then once again make the sign of the cross.

None of this is required, however.

Once baptized, Catholics are free to pray to God anyplace, and in any way they choose.

Catholics ARE REQUIRED to celebrate Mass on Sundays and certain Holy Days, though.

Answer 8

Just talk to God.
Now in formal worship like the Mass, sometimes we stand, sometimes we kneel. Some people close their eyes, some don't. People usually clasp their hands when kneeling in prayer, when going to Communion and coming back from communion. There is no set rule as long as you are showing respect.

Answer 9

You can pray any way you like , I sit on the bed and pray to God by looking up or I close my eyes, which any way you are happy with

Answer 10

First of all, you are improper. Orthodox Christians (of which I am one) and Roman Catholics (of whom I recognise a couple of) do pray to God, and on the whole. We additionally pray to Saints, however the sort of pray to Saints is unique from the sort of prayer to God, simply because the sort of honor we provide to the Saints isn't the equal because the worship we provide to God. In order to fully grasp this, a Protestant might often have got to unlearn many wrong matters that she or he has found out. For illustration, they might have got to abandon the proposal that individuals who die are virtually non-existent, or in a few sort of state of suspended animation with out a attention, till the Last Judgment. But don’t take my phrase for it – learn your Bible. If the useless haven't any attention, how is it that on the Lord’s transfiguration on Mt. Tabor, Moses and the Prophet Elijah seemed within the mild of his glory speakme to him approximately his upcoming crucifixion? And talking of the Prophet Elijah, we all know from the Old Testament that he was once carried off into the heavens on a fiery chariot with out loss of life – so despite the fact that the useless had been to haven't any attention till the Last Judgment, what’s the rationale to not be ready to converse with anyone residing? Many of the respondents to this question have talked approximately how handiest Jesus can forgive sins etc. Well, it appears they don’t recognise their Bibles as good as they might have us think. If they did, they might have come around the side that says that Christ despatched the Apostles out and gave them the vigour to heal the in poor health, cleanse the lepers, lift the useless, forgive sins, and so on. What approximately statements like, “anything you unfastened in the world is loosed in heaven, and anything you bind in the world is sure in heaven”? Is it fair to think that the Apostles got the vigour to forgive sins handiest in the world, however now that they have got “run the race” and been made invaluable of everlasting existence within the heavenly kingdom, that they have got no powers in any respect? With that sort of pondering, the earthly existence might be beneficial over the heavenly existence. How can that be? Question your assumptions. There are many matters that might be stated in this field, however the few matters acknowledged above are often ample to make the factor. If you're anyone who relatively “has ears to listen to”, and needs to make use of your God-given brain to relatively consider severely approximately those matters as an alternative of simply taking the convenient and superficial method, you're going to discover that there's extra to this field than meets the attention. I desire you're inclined to open your eyes to look.

Answer 11

You can pray to God any way you feel comfortable. You should have a personal relationship with Him, just as you do with people. Just remember that He is God and you should use respect.

God bless,
Stanbo