The Catholic Church deeply believes in the power of prayer to establish and uphold a very powerful spiritual relationship between God and man in Christ. Some Catholics call it “keeping company with God.” The Catholic Catechism refers to it as a covenant relationship. As with everything else in the Church, the wellspring for this prayer is Christ made man, which is the Creator's ultimate act of love.

The revelation, or call to prayer, occurs first in the Old Testament and then is fortified in the New Testament. What's more, the style and mood of prayer changes from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The Old Testament is full of prayers of lamentation. In the New Testament, there are many prayers of petition and hope in the risen Christ.

Catholics try to achieve a perfect state of prayer. Some of the elements of a perfect state of prayer are devotion (or deep belief), concentration, acknowledgment of dependence on God, a sense of gratitude to the Almighty, and attitudes of worship and praise. The example set before them is what the Church calls Jesus' “filial prayer” — his state of prayer when addressing his Father as well as the example of his life and sacrifice. The Church says that filial prayer, which is characterized by solitude, is the perfect model of prayer in the New Testament.

At the core, the prayers of the Catholic Church include the following:

• Our Father

• Hail Mary

• Glory Be

• Apostles' Creed

• Stations of the Cross

• The Rosary (a cycle of seven prayers)

The Our Father is the fundamental prayer of the Catholic Church. It is considered a summary of the Gospels and was taught to the apostles by Jesus. It is said during every Mass. This prayer, along with the Hail Mary, is the most common prayer said by Catholics, among the thousands of other prayers available to them.