Using Vocal Prayer in Your Spiritual Life
Vocal prayer is prayer in word or action. Since man is composed of soul and body, he must not only use his mind in prayer, but also his body and its senses for the glory of God. You express your interior sentiments and reverence for God in articulated words or in bodily posture, such as kneeling, standing, bowing, or folding your hands.
The great value of a vocal prayer always lies in the fact that it is a means by which you lovingly adore God. Each prayer is useful to the degree that it lifts the mind and will to God.
In vocal prayer, we use a prepared form of words, either a standard prayer from a prayer book or a prayer we have made up ourselves, and we recite this prayer, aloud or silently, from the book or from memory.
Invoking the saints aids vocal prayer
The practice of invoking the saints keeps before your mind the consoling doctrine of the Communion of Saints and of the universal motherhood of Mary. We help one another here on earth by mutual prayer; we pray, too, for our beloved dead and for all the souls in Purgatory; and to the saints in glory we look for assistance, calling on them to intercede for us with God. In this way, we can keep alive the family spirit that binds together the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, under the fatherhood of God and the motherhood of our Blessed Lady.
Devotion to our Lady is a sort of echo of our Lord’s bidding to become like little children if we wish to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Our Blessed Mother enters largely — as in a lesser degree the other saints also enter — into the scheme of salvation.
External worship of God
The Church follows the example of our Savior, who prayed orally and taught His disciples to pray in the same way. She attaches great importance to prayer that is offered by the faithful in groups, such as at public services in churches, at Mass, during novenas, and at Benediction.
Public prayer has a special power with God and is very pleasing to Him, for our Lord said, “If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Jesus is near them with His grace and will support their prayers by His intercession with the Father.
