Home > Prayer in Christianity
This article is about the many forms of prayer within Christianity.1 Liturgical
Elements of the oldest Christian liturgies may be found in liturgies such as the modern Roman Catholic Mass, the Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Anglican services.
1.1 Seasonal prayers
Seasonal prayers such as found in the Breviary, which provides prayer for each liturgical season including Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, as well as the other parts of the liturgical year. The Breviary developed over the centuries. Different religious orders sometimes have their own breviaries.
1.2 Prayer to saints
Prayer to saints: in Catholic and Orthodox tradition, prayers of petition may be addressed to saints. This may be done at Mass, within the Breviary, or privately during vocal prayer (see below). It is understood that the saints answer such prayers by means of their own prayers to God on behalf of the petitioner. Catholics often refer to this in connection with the "treasury of merits" ¹ , and distinguish between latriaLatria is a Greek term used in Roman Catholic theology to refer to the highest form of worship of God. It is sacrificial in character, and may be offered only to God. Roman Catholics offer other degrees of reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the S, i.e. prayer of sacrifice due to God alone, and dulia, or prayer of praise due only to a creature such as a saint. Other Christians, mostly ProtestantsProtestantism in the strict sense of the word is the group of princes and imperial cities who, at the diet of Speyer in 1529, tried a protestation against the Edict of Worms which forbade the Lutheran teachings within the Holy Roman Empire. From there, th, reject the notion of prayer to saints, and feel that it leads to polytheismPolytheism is belief in, or worship of, multiple and equal gods or divinities. The word comes from the Greek words poly+theoi literally "many gods. Most ancient religions were polytheistic, holding to pantheons of traditional deities, often accumulated ov. See Communion of SaintsThe Communion of Saints is a Christian doctrine held by the majority of major Christian churches. It is included in the Apostles Creed, the major confession of the Christian faith, laid down for the instruction of Christians between the 3rd and 6th centur.
1.3 Prayer for the dead
Prayer for the deadWherever there is a belief in the continued existence of man's personality through and after death, religion naturally concerns itself with the relations between the living and the dead. And where the idea of a future judgment obtains, prayers are often o: Roman CatholicsThe Roman Catholic Church (often called simply the Catholic Church, but see Catholicism for other meanings of the term "Catholic Church") is a worldwide body of Christians in full communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and subscribing to the beliefs believe that prayers for the deadThis page deals with death, the cessation of life. For other meanings of death, see death (disambiguation). Death is a term that can refer to either the termination of life in a living system, or the state of that organism after that event. A common perce can diminish their suffering in PurgatoryIn Roman Catholic theology, Purgatory is a place of cleansing after the particular judgment. One of the first documents to mention purgatorium was a letter from the Benedictine Nicholas of Saint Albans to the Cistercian Peter of Celle in 1176 (Haggh, 1997; for this reason, requiem Masses are offered for the repose of the faithful departed. Eastern Orthodoxy rejects the notion of Purgatory, but offers prayers for the dead asking God to have mercy upon them; in particular it believes that Christians who have fallen asleep remain part of the Church, and as such are both able to pray and to receive the benefits of prayer for them, whatever those may be. Protestants have historically rejected the notion of prayer for the dead, believing that such prayers cannot affect the fate of departed souls. The appeal of this sort of prayer to those in mourning exerts constant pressure on this theological position, however. It is also possible to pray for the dead in one's private vocal prayer, without the prayer being part of a liturgy.
