My Favorite Prayers

I'm linking up with Amanda at Worthy of Agape for the Favorite Prayers Link-Up. It has been going all through Lent, and I wanted to sneak a link in before it ended.

I like to pray many ways. I like to pray spontaneous, free-form prayers. I like to pray the "rote" prayers that have drawn millions closer to God, such as the Rosary, or the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I like to pray with the scriptures, sometimes by saying the Daily Office, or simply praying over the Scriptures lectio divina style (I especially love this in a  group). I am very fond of the Stations of the Cross according to St. Alphonsus Ligouri.

I began my relationship with God in a Pentecostal ecclessial community, and I identify - to some extent - as a charismatic Catholic, so I like to pray in tongues.

One of my favorite ways to pray is to sing. I love to sings praise songs, hymns, chant. I love it all.

When I prayed about my favorite prayer, however, I realized that my favorite prayers are prayers of praise. I pray them "off-the-cuff" but there are patterns I return to again and again. I learned to pray as a Pentecostal, and many of my patterns remain from then. Pentecostals tend to focus very heavily on praising and glorifying Jesus and His Holy Name. Obviously they also ask God for things, thank Him for things, repent of their sins, etc. but praise is very important.

Catholicism embraces all that is true and good, and it is right to give God thanks and praise. While my prayers are now peppered with petitions to the Saints and traditional prayers that I memorize or read, simple prayers of praise still form the backbone of my personal interaction with God in prayer.