by Barbara Schoeneberger

Created on: January 04, 2010   Last Updated: January 05, 2010

Before discussing mental prayer, we first need to answer the question, "What is prayer?"   The Catholic Baltimore Catechism #3, Lesson 28, question 1099 gives a simple, yet comprehensive definition:

"Prayer is the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God, to adore him, to thank him for his benefits, to ask his forgiveness, and to beg of him all the graces we need whether for soul or body."

St. Augustine tells us in his "Confessions" book 1, chapter 1 why we pray:

"Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end. And man, being a part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee, man, who bears about with him his mortality, the witness of his sin, even the witness that Thou 'resistest the proud,' - yet man, this part of Thy creation, desires to praise Thee. Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee."

We can find many types of prayer listed in the Catechism, but the Church has traditionally divided prayer into two main categories: mental and vocal, and each has its purpose.  To understand mental prayer well, we need to understand what the Church means by vocal prayer.

In vocal prayer a person prays according to a given formula out loud.  Examples of this kind of prayer would be the Our Father, the rosary prayers, the Mass prayers, the Divine Office, litanies, and prayers found in many prayer books.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church relates in #2700:

 "By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh.  Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer." 

In vocal prayer we express our feelings outwardly and pray with our whole being.  Praying vocal prayer well does not mean rote recitation while daydreaming of the next task we have at hand or some other preoccupying issue.  We are body and spirit and must take both into account when we pray.  Number 2074 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) says:

"Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups.  Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer.  Prayer is internalized to the extent that we become aware of him 'to whom we speak' [St. Teresa of Avila, "The Way of perfection, 26, 9]."  Very often sincere, internalized vocal prayer is the prelude to mental

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