How to Pray, According to Your Favourite Catholic: It’s Me.

This is How to Communicate to God

9 min readMay 2, 2024

My path to prayer was first through reading and memorisation.

It was from attending catechism class and mass that I learned different ways to pray.

There was the Our Father, the Hail Mary, The Apostles Creed and the prayers to the Saints. I took pride in memorising it all because I thought that was what it meant to be a Christian. To be a Catholic.

But then I came into adulthood and praying became different for me. Praying was no longer about memorisation but it was about getting closer to God.

Praying is now about having a relationship with God.

It’s about communicating to God to make my intentions known or to give him praise or to ask for his wisdom and counsel.

Praying is also about asking for protection as we pray during battles and spiritual warfare.

If you want to learn how to pray but have not yet begun, here is how to pray.

1. You Pray Through Our Lord’s Prayer

Matthew 6: (5- 15)

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites! They love to stand up and pray in the houses of worship and on the street corners so that everyone will see them. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. And your Father who sees what you do in private will reward you.
When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in Heaven:
May your holy name be honoured;
May your Kingdom come,
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need.
Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
As we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
Do not bring us to hard testing but keep us safe from the evil one.
If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your father in heaven will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done.”

If you are beginning to learn how to pray, the first place you should go to is the Good News, our good word from the Bible.

When you familiarise yourself with the Bible, then you get to learn how to pray and we are introduced to how to say our First Prayer: the Lord’s Prayer in the Book of Matthew.

The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer to glorify God and then to invite him to our daily lives to provide for us. To guide us and to protect us.

Also, through the Book of Matthew, we learn that in praying to God, there is a certain stance that God wants us to take.

God doesn’t say that we have to be loud or public in our prayers but God would like us to have moments of privacy when we pray to him.

Let us make time out of our day to distance ourselves from others and pray to God privately and when you pray, you must know that your Father already knows what you need before you ask it of him.

2. You Pray by Letting the Holy Spirit Guide You

Acts 2: 1- 8

“When the day of Pentecost came, all the believers were gathered together in one place.
Suddenly there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire which spread out and touched each person there.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
There were Jews living in Jerusalem, religious men who had come from every country in the world. When they heard this noise, a large crowd gathered.
They were all excited because each one of them heard the believers speaking in his own language.
In amazement and wonder, they exclaimed, “These people who are talking like this are Galileans! How is it then that all of us hear them speaking in our own native languages?”

Another way for you to pray is by letting the Holy Spirit guide you when you pray.

What this means is that when you pray, you allow yourself to be free with your prayer.

This is important because when we allow ourselves to be free, then it is an act of surrender and as we surrender, then the Holy Spirit will take over.

Also, you have to know that wherever you are in the world, God is present and whichever form of language you communicate with God, he listens and understands.

We read that the disciples were all speaking in their native languages.

When you pray, be comfortable with letting yourself be free to surrender to the Holy Spirit and communicate with God in the dialect you are most comfortable in.

3. You Pray in Fellowship with Others

Matthew 18: 19

And I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.

As much as God wants us to pray in private to him, we should also still pray amongst others.

We should also still pray in fellowship and in communion with others because where two or three are gathered, he is present.

As a Christian, I’ve grown up praying with my family and it has strengthed my belief and my faith.

You too should pray with your family and other believers as you make your intentions known to God.

Also, when you pray with other believers, don’t only pray for your intention but pray over the lives of other fellow Christians. Pray that God’s will be done in their life. Pray that they will be strengthened in their faith if they are going through moments of weakness.

That is the strength and beauty of praying together. To speak life unto others.

In praying in fellowship with others, we should also pray with non-believers because after all, God said that he has come for the sinners.

When you pray with non-believers, encourage them to be in fellowship with God. Give them a Bible for them to know God.

Tell them of your experiences of God’s love, of God’s goodness, kindness and mercy.

When you pray, pray to God in private and through fellowship with others.

4. You Pray by Being Devoted to Mary, the Mother of God

Luke 1: 26- 33

“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. He had a message for a girl promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. The girl’s name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and he has greatly blessed you!
Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s message and she wondered what his words meant. The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!”

Mary was the one chosen by God to give birth to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

So when we pray, we must not fail to mention Mary because she played such a powerful and significant role. It was through Mary that our saviour was born.

Therefore, when we pray, we must seek Mary as a way to get through Jesus and we invite Mary into our lives when we say:

“Hail Mary, Full of Grace. Blessed are You amongst Women and Blessed is the Fruit of Your Womb Jesus. Then, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for Us Sinners, Now and at the Hour of our Death. Amen.”

Praying to Mary is imperative and we do that through the Holy Rosary which I can attest brings you strength and peace.

Make it a habit to learn the different mysteries of the rosary and pray to Mary our mother for God for his strength, guidance, protection and peace.

5. You Pray by Inviting the Angels to Fight for You

Revelation 12: 7- 12

Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought back against the dragon, who fought back with his angels; but the dragon was defeated, and he and his angels were not allowed to stay in heaven any longer. The huge dragon was thrown out — that ancient serpent, called the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth and all his angels with him.
Then, I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now God’s salvation has come! Now God has shown his power as King! Now his Messiah has shown his authority!
For the one who stood before our God and accused our brothers day and night has been thrown out of heaven.
Our brothers won the victory over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the truth which they proclaimed; and they were willing to give up their lives and die.
And so be glad, you heavens, and all you that live there!
But how terrible for the earth and the sea!
For the devil has come down to you and he is filled with rage because he knows that he has only a little time left.

Through the book of Revelations, we know that Michael the Archangel is the Angel we must call on to fight our battles because he engaged in the battle against satan and won.

However, both satan and the Angels were sent back to Earth.

What this means is that evil and wickedness exist in the world but we thankfully have our angels to guide us.

We have our angels to protect us and fight for us against all forms of evil and darkness.

That is why we say the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel.

Prayer to Saint Michael
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke Satan we humbly pray and do thou O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast down to hell Satan and all wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

The Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel is a prayer to be said during times of warfare.

It is a prayer to be said when you don’t feel safe.

It is a prayer to be said when you feel under attack.

It is a good prayer because it serves as a form of protection. For Angels to join us in the battlefield.

To join us during moments of warfare to lead us into victory.

In Conclusion

I used to think that praying was all about reading and memorising so that when it came time to attend the mass, I would say the prayers accordingly with everyone in the church.

However, I grew up and learned that praying is much more than reciting things.

Praying is being in communion with God to invite him to our daily lives to be there with us and guide us.

Praying is being in fellowship with Christians and non-believers to glorify God and bring his message to the world.

Prayer is also an act of devotion to our first mother Mary, the mother of God who intercedes for us in making our intentions known to God.

Lastly, Praying is the greatest armour that Christians have in their lives which strengthens our faith, renews our minds and gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding.

We must pray as often as possible and relentlessly to God.