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I have so many experiences about prayer in my life. Starting from my childhood, I

had learned various modes or acts of prayers. When I was about five years old, I

learned from my parents the three basic prayers, “Our Father..”, “Hail Mary..” and “Glory

be..”. Also they taught me the prayer of “Jesus, Mary and Joseph”. That was the prayer I always utter before I go to sleep. I remember that during my childhood days, I

frequently had bad dreams and nightmares everytime I sleep. As I complained to my

mother, she told me to pray first before going to sleep. According to her, a prayer would

prevent me to have nightmares. That was the reason why I always prayed at night since

then and I carried that mentality even I reached highschool.

From kinder 1 to 4th year highschool, I studied at Saint Bridget College

Batangas, a Catholic School run by the Religious of Good Shepherd (RGS). Aside from

the basic prayers I learned from my parents, I also learned various prayers from school.

Being a Catholic School, our teachers taught us different prayers and impliedly requiredus to memorize those. Just like De La Salle Lipa, we had also prayers every 6am, 12nn

and 6pm. Those prayers can be learned from a loud speaker that will be played and

obliged everyone in the campus to stop whatever they were doing. In case of non-

compliance, the students would be apprehended by the discipline officer or teachers

around the vicinity. It is quite funny I realized that the school made the prayers

mandatory and those who would not pay attention would be punished. In the present, I

realized that that should not be the true essence of a prayer.

In my highscool days, I joined the Youth For Christ, a youth organization under 

the Couples For Christ Family Ministries. I joined it because my parents are members of the Couples For Christ. Being a member of this organization, I learned a new mode of 

prayer, a prayer in a form of worship. From the time I was still a fresh member, I was

fascinated and inspired of how we were worshipping God everytime we had our 

meetings, assemblies and conferences. Eventhough I don’t know how to sing I was

carried away by the sound and tune of the music, the lyrics of the songs, and also upon

seeing my co-members’ conviction and dedication of worshipping. Because of that I

learned to play the guitar and became a member of the music ministry. I took part of 

playing with the band in assemblies and especially in conferences. For me, that is the

form of prayer that most made me feel in the presence of God. Everytime we sing the

songs, raised our hands and close our eyes, I had the feeling of being fulfilled and

dedicated. Unfortunately, starting my college days I wasn’t able to attend meetings and

already inactive.

Presently, I can say that my practice of prayer is not that good and impressive.

Eventhough I regularly attend the Holy Mass with my family, sometimes I do not pay

serious attention thereon. Also, I do not always pray and frequently forget to do so.

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Sometimes before going to sleep I would just make the sign if the Cross without actually

saying a prayer. With regard to my understanding about the practice of prayer, I can say

that forms of prayer are not that important. What important is, a person knows how to

make himself effectively communicate with God. It is a matter of spirituality, not religion.

Memorizing prayers and regularly saying those in a routine is not effective without

dedicating oneself in the presence of God. As I have learned in our Lasallian formation

class, keeping silent for a while without thinking and saying anything is a form of an

effective prayer. Contrary to uniform prayers, this kind of activity helps us to cleanse our 

soul and effectively communicate with God. This is a practice of prayer that must be

developed and be taught especially to children for them to realize and understand the

true essence of prayer.