Is it Good to Pray for Yourself?
Christian prayer can be a prayer of request, which concerns us personally, but can also be turned to others, and the World. Is it good to pray for yourself? We will see in this article that while prayer of request or for oneself is not bad in itself, it can cause problems in some cases. Let's learn about who we can direct our prayers to. At the end of this reading, we invite you to discover other great questions about christian life.
A prayer of request is not bad in itself
Praying for yourself is not bad. There are indeed situations in life where we need to pray for ourselves. In other words, when we have a need or experience a difficulty, it is good to put it before God.
Here are some situations that particularly require praying for yourself:
A discernment or an important decision to make: for example, a choice in life, whether to move, to change jobs, etc.
Disease: it is sometimes necessary to ask for the strength and courage to face it
Working life: to succeed in your job, get a new job, a promotion, etc.
Family life: asking God to help you learn to love your wife or husband better every day, to raise and educate your children well, to get closer to people in your family you have distanced yourself from, etc.
Any other important situation requiring God's support:praying to find love, praying for difficult marriage, praying about a medical examination or health in general, about money problems, to be happy and/or fight against sadness, loneliness or depression, to be able to forgive, etc.
But if it is only a request, it amounts to using God
The problem that can arise in praying for yourself is to pray only when you need something. This raises the question of one's own relationship with God: do I ultimately use God to gain something? To pray only to get something from God would be to use God. It is therefore important to also be able to enter into other forms of prayer, than prayer of request, such as prayer of thanksgiving, praise, etc.
Apart from yourself, who can you pray for?
For the Church, and for the World
In the image of the universal prayers of the Sunday Mass, we can pray for the Church, and for the World. The news, whether international or local, gives us ideas for prayers that we can make: for example, praying for the end of a war, for the leaders of the World or for the mayor of a city, praying for people suffering harassment in school or work, etc.
There is also the liturgy of the hours, which any baptized person can do, for example by reciting Lauds or Vespers.
Pray for those you meet
If you don't know who to pray for, you can pray for everyone you meet in your daily life. It can be your work colleagues, boss, family, wife or husband, friends, people you meet in the community, your parish priest, people you meet in your parish, etc.
Pray for the dead and the souls in Purgatory
The thought of praying for the dead is a holy and pious thought, as is mentioned by Catechism number 958: “Communion with the dead. “In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and 'because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' she offers her suffrages for them.” Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.” (No. 958).
In parishes, if you wish to celebrate a Mass for a deceased person, you can contact the secretary of your parish.
Pray for your enemies
The Word of God invites us in Chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew to pray for our enemies and for those who persecute us: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44).
The number 1968 Catechism of completes this by saying: “The Gospel thus brings the Law to its fullness through imitation of the perfection of the heavenly Father, through forgiveness of enemies and prayer for persecutors, in emulation of the divine generosity.” (No. 1968).
If you want to go further in prayer, you can also discover our guide.
Let us ask for a selfless prayer with Hozana!
With Hozana, let us ask to pray selflessly, to not always think of our own interests when asking things of the Lord, but also to pray for others. It is in Jesus, and in the Saints, that we can find examples.
To develop your life of prayer, Hozana offers different communities, such aspraying every other day with your guardian angel, a novena for forgiveness, aa community led by Pope Francis to pray to Mary,, or a community to pray to St. Joseph.
