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The efficacy of prayer has been studied since at least 1872, generally through experiments to determine whether prayer or intercessory prayer has a measurable effect on the health of the person for whom prayer is offered. A study in 2006 indicates that intercessory prayer in cardiac bypass patients had no discernible effects.
Interior life is a life which seeks God in everything, a life of prayer and the practice of living in the presence of God. It connotes intimate, friendly conversation with Him, and a determined focus on internal prayer versus external actions, while these latter are transformed into means of prayer.
Christian prayer is an important activity in Christianity, and there are several different forms used for this practice. [1]Christian prayers are diverse: they can be completely spontaneous, or read entirely from a text, such as from a breviary, which contains the canonical hours that are said at fixed prayer times.
Prayer can take a variety of forms: it can be part of a set liturgy or ritual, and it can be performed alone or in groups. Prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creedal statement, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person. The act of prayer is attested in written sources as early as five thousand years ago.
Catholics consider vocal prayer an essential element of the Christian life. Vocal prayer can be as simple and uplifting as "Thank you, God, for this beautiful morning", or as formal as a Mass celebrating a very special occasion. [7] When two or more people gather together to pray, their prayer is called communal prayer.
A progression on the scale is characterized by a change in the perspective of the purpose of prayer. Rather than using prayer as a means of changing the reality of a situation, a more mature individual will use prayer to request assistance in coping with immutable problems and draw closer to God or others.
There is a large corpus of devotional prayers written by the Báb, Baháʼu'lláh, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith, which are used extensively by Baháʼís in their devotional life. [2] These prayers, encompassing many topics that include meetings, times of day, and healing, are held in high esteem.
Mental prayer is a form of meditational prayer, "performed without aid of any particular formula." [ 1 ] It is distinguished from vocal prayers, "prayers performed by means of a given formula." [ 1 ] The aim of mental prayer is 'to inflame souls with the love of God' and 'live without sin'.