Strand: Prayer, Liturgy and Sacraments (PLSL7-8E2)
Levels 7 and 8
Christians believe that various prayer forms enable people to grow in relationship with God, others and creation.
Investigate various forms of Christian prayer and prayer in other traditions, reflecting upon prayer as a means both of deepening the Christian’s relationship with God and peoples’ relationships with each other.
Elaborations
The beauty and wonder of creation is understood to reveal God’s presence in the daily lives of people of faith. From the perspective of Christian faith, prayer is communication with God and an awareness of the Creator’s powerful and loving presence. It is also a response to God: a basic openness to and communication with God, within a dialogue initiated by the Creator. The origin of the word prayer is to entreat or to ask. The gospels describe Jesus praying to God frequently. He went off to quiet, deserted places to pray before crucial events in his life and ministry.
There are many ways to pray - prayer can be silent or verbal, formal or informal, private or communal. Prayer is for all people regardless of their age, race, beliefs, gender, and social status. The relationship of Christians with God and each other can be developed and nourished through individual and communal prayer, in a variety of ways including spontaneous prayer – there is no single ‘right’ way to pray.
People pray in different ways according to their personality, stage of life, culture and religious background. Different forms of prayer can be learnt and developed through practice, there are formal prayers. Prayer engages the whole person. It is not just an exercise of the mind, it requires effort and perseverance.
See Learning Lites: Prayer
More Information
See Learning Lites: Prayer