Noun

prayer (plural prayers)

1. A practice of communicating with one's God.

   Through prayer I ask for God's blessings.

2. The act of praying.

   In many cultures, prayer involves singing.

3. The specific words or methods used for praying.

   Christians recite the Lord's Prayer.

4. A meeting held for the express purpose of praying.

   Grandpa never misses a chance to go to prayer.

5. A request; a petition.

   This, your honor, is my prayer; that all here be set free.

Synonyms

• orison, precation

Derived terms

• not have a prayer
• prayer book
• prayer meeting

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional connection to a God, deity or spirit, through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. There are different forms of prayer such as petitionary prayer, prayers of supplication, thanksgiving, and worship/praise. Prayer may be directed towards a deity, spirit, deceased person, or lofty idea, for the purpose of worshiping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing sins or to express one's thoughts and emotions. Thus, people pray for many reasons such as personal benefit or for the sake of others.

Most major religions involve prayer in one way or another. Some ritualize the act of prayer, requiring a strict sequence of actions or placing a restriction on who is permitted to pray, while others teach that prayer may be practiced spontaneously by anyone at any time.

Scientific studies regarding the use of prayer have mostly concentrated on its effect on the healing of sick or injured people. The efficacy of petition in prayer for physical healing to a deity has been evaluated in numerous studies, with contradictory results. There has been some criticism of the way the studies were conducted.

Prayer

Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate, commonly with a sequence of words, with a deity or spirit for the purpose of worshipping, requesting guidance, requesting assistance, confessing sins, as an act of reparation or to express one's thoughts and emotions. The words of the prayer may take the form of intercession, a hymn, incantation or a spontaneous utterance in the person's praying words. Secularly, the term can also be used in referring too "hope".

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
• 2 See also
• 3 External links

Sourced

• He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.
• Then Jesus told his disciples…that they should always pray and not give up.
  • Luke 18:1 (KJV)
  • Luke 18:1 (NIV)

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Sat Sep 4 12:50:41 2010