Experiments in Catholicism: How do I pray? Get out of your head

Over the summer, I received an email from a reader who inquired if I might write a column on prayer. She wrote to me that she didn’t feel like Catholics knew how to have honest, real conversations with the Lord during prayer.

This is a really commonly held thought among Catholics. Growing up, we were taught basic prayers, how to ask the saints for their intercession, and how we should pray for our family and friends who need help. Beyond those, prayer seems like a foreign means of communication with the Divine, not a conversation.  Prayer can feel like having an imaginary friend. The Lord is a far-off being in heaven. Sure, He made us and the universe, but does He really care about my little thoughts and details? The Lord knew you before He knit you together in your mother’s womb, so of course He wants to know how you are!

So how do we go from the simple prayers of childhood to telling the Lord absolutely everything? We need to allow our prayers to leave our minds.

I love writing letters to the Lord. When I need to really tell Him what’s going on in my life, the physicality of my pen and notebook allows me to have a more honest, raw conversation with Him. Instead of staying in the swirling seas of my thoughts, I extract them in ink as they land on the page in my loopy and albeit very messy, cursive. Instead of limiting my thoughts to dull prayers, I am forced to find the words to describe how I’m feeling. I can visibly see the gaps in the stories I’m telling, and I can fill the Lord in with context. My black and white conversations are alive and in color.

Not a writer? Try another creative outlet, like painting or doodling. Pick a Bible verse to create on paper and really think about what it means. Keep it somewhere you can see every day and pray with that verse when you see it.

More of an outdoors type? Living in Central New York, there’s a chance you can just go in your own backyard and experience nature. Go deep into the woods and have an out loud conversation with the Lord. Allow yourself to experience the full range of emotions you’re feeling. If you’ve really needed to wrestle with the Lord about something, let those prayers out at full volume!

The Lord gives us such a wonderful gift in prayer: being able to communicate with the Divine. To pray is to raise our consciousness to God. When our prayers are out in the open, they start to take shape not as just unimportant imaginary thoughts, but real needs and requests to our Creator.

Experiment of the week: Think of a way to get your prayers out of your head. See how it deepens your relationship with the Lord.