How to Pray

Prayer patterns from the Bible and the whole Church, with a printable card for each

By the editors of Weekday GraceReviewed October 2026No ads, no sign-up

The disciples had watched Jesus pray for months before they asked him about it. They had grown up praying; they knew the Psalms and the synagogue prayers. Something about the way he prayed made them want to start over.

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

Luke 11:1 (ESV)

Most of us are somewhere in that request. Maybe you were never taught. Maybe you were taught one way and it stopped working, or your prayers have shrunk to a short list of worries said in the car. This guide sets out nine ways Christians have prayed, drawn from the Bible and from two thousand years of practice. For each one you get where it comes from, which traditions keep it, how to start this week, and a card you can print.

We wrote it for Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant readers alike. Every pattern here is used across more than one tradition, and where the churches pray differently, we say so without taking sides.

What prayer is in the Bible

The Bible never defines prayer in a sentence. It shows people doing it, in almost every kind of situation, and the range is wider than most of us allow ourselves. Hannah prays with her lips moving and no sound, and the priest thinks she is drunk (1 Samuel 1:12-13). Nehemiah prays in the half second between the king’s question and his answer (Nehemiah 2:4). Jeremiah accuses God of deceiving him (Jeremiah 20:7). Mary sings (Luke 1:46-55). A tax collector stands at the back and can’t lift his eyes (Luke 18:13).

What holds all of these together is that someone is speaking to God as to a person who hears. Prayer in Scripture includes praise, thanks, confession, lament, asking for yourself and asking for others. It can be written down and repeated, or blurted out. It can be done alone in a closed room (Matthew 6:6) or with the whole people of God.

Jesus himself prayed early in the morning and alone:

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.

Mark 1:35 (ESV)

He also prayed the Psalms, prayed at meals, prayed for his friends, and prayed in agony in Gethsemane. None of the patterns below is the one right way. They are well-worn paths that other Christians have walked, and you are free to try them.

The nine patterns at a glance

1. The Lord’s Prayer, phrase by phrase

Where it comes from

Jesus taught it to his disciples (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4). The Didache, a church manual from around the year 100, tells Christians to pray it three times a day.

Who keeps it

Every Christian tradition. It is the one prayer nearly all Christians know by heart.

Time

1 to 15 minutes

Good for

Everyone. A first prayer, and a pattern for all the others.

Jesus gave it as an answer to “teach us to pray,” and Matthew places it in the Sermon on the Mount with the words “Pray then like this.” It is a prayer to say, and it is also a pattern: it puts God’s name, kingdom and will first, then asks for bread, forgiveness and protection. Almost any prayer you pray will fit somewhere inside it.

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)

The differences you will hear

Christians say this prayer in slightly different words, and none of them is a mistake.

• Debts, trespasses or sins. Matthew has “debts” and Luke has “sins” (Luke 11:4). “Trespasses” goes back to William Tyndale’s English New Testament of 1526 and the Book of Common Prayer, which is why Catholics, Anglicans and many others say it. Presbyterian and Reformed churches often say “debts.”
• The ending. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever” isn’t in the oldest manuscripts of Matthew, so modern translations put it in a footnote. It is very old all the same: the Didache gives a form of it. Most Protestants say it as part of the prayer. In the Catholic Mass the priest adds a short prayer after “deliver us from evil,” and the people then say the doxology. In Orthodox services the priest sings it, adding “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
• “Lead us not into temptation.” The Greek word can mean a trial or test as well as a temptation, and James 1:13 says God tempts no one. In 2017 the French bishops adopted “do not let us enter into temptation,” and the Italian bishops later adopted “do not abandon us to temptation” with Pope Francis’s approval. Other churches keep the familiar wording and explain it.
• “Evil” or “the evil one.” The Greek can mean either. The ESV prints “evil” with a footnote; many other translations, and the World English Bible on our printable card, say “the evil one.”

Printable cardThe Lord’s Prayer“Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today…” Matthew 6:9-13, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

2. Praying the Psalms

Where it comes from

The Psalms were Israel’s prayer book and songbook. Jesus prayed them, even on the cross (Psalm 22:1 in Mark 15:34). Early monks prayed all 150 every week, and the Rule of Saint Benedict (sixth century) still asks for that.

Who keeps it

Every tradition. Catholic and Anglican daily prayer is built on them; Orthodox services read the whole Psalter every week, divided into twenty sections called kathismata; Reformed churches have long sung them as metrical psalms.

Time

5 to 15 minutes

Good for

Days when you have no words of your own, and every mood, including anger and grief.

Most of the Bible is God speaking to people. Most of the Psalms are people speaking to God, which is why the church has always used them as its prayer book. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called them “the prayer book of the Bible” in a small book of that title in 1940. They give you words for moods you might not think you were allowed to bring to God: Psalm 13 asks “How long?” four times, Psalm 88 ends in darkness, Psalm 137 is raw with fury. They also give you praise you couldn’t write yourself.

The usual objection is that a psalm often doesn’t match how you feel today. That is part of the point. You are praying with the whole people of God, and somewhere someone is living the psalm you are reading. Pray it for them.

Printable cardPraying the Psalms“Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

3. ACTS: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication

Where it comes from

A modern teaching acronym, common in evangelical churches through the twentieth century; who first used it isn’t recorded. Its parts are old: David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:10-19 moves from praise to humility to request, and Philippians 4:6 joins prayer and petition with thanksgiving.

Who keeps it

Widely taught in Protestant churches, Sunday schools and youth groups, and now well beyond them.

Time

10 to 20 minutes

Good for

Beginners, and anyone whose prayers have shrunk to a list of requests.

ACTS is the simplest pattern here, and for many people it is the one that turns prayer from a list of requests into a conversation. The order is the point. Starting with who God is puts your needs in proportion; confession clears the air; thanks keeps you honest about how much you have already received. By the time you get to asking, you ask differently.

Philippians 4:6 is the nearest thing to ACTS in a single verse: “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Notice where the thanksgiving comes. It comes before the answer.

Printable cardACTS“In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Philippians 4:6, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

4. Lectio divina: praying Scripture slowly

Where it comes from

Reading Scripture slowly as prayer goes back to the early monks. The Rule of Saint Benedict sets aside hours each day for lectio divina, “holy reading.” In the twelfth century Guigo II, a Carthusian monk, described its four steps in The Ladder of Monks: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.

Who keeps it

Benedictine and other Catholic religious communities first, and now many Anglican and Protestant churches. Orthodox Christians have a long practice of prayerful reading of Scripture and the Fathers, though they don’t usually give it this name.

Time

15 to 20 minutes

Good for

People who read the Bible but find it doesn’t reach them, and small groups.

Most Bible reading is for information: what happened, what it means, what to do. Lectio divina reads for meeting. You take a short passage and read it so slowly that one phrase has time to stop you, and then you talk to God about that phrase. It doesn’t replace careful study; it sits alongside it. (For the study side, see our guide to reading any verse in its context.)

The four Latin names can make it sound more complicated than it is. If you have ever read a verse, stopped, read it again, and found yourself praying, you’ve already done it.

It also works well in a group. One person reads the passage aloud three times, with silence between readings; after the first, each person says only the word or phrase that caught them, and after the second, a sentence on why.

Printable cardLectio Divina“Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

5. The Daily Office: fixed-hour prayer

Where it comes from

Praying at set hours comes from Judaism: “evening and morning and at noon” (Psalm 55:17), Daniel praying three times a day (Daniel 6:10), Peter and John going up to the temple “at the hour of prayer” (Acts 3:1). The early church kept the habit, and monasteries shaped it into the hours of prayer.

Who keeps it

Catholics pray the Liturgy of the Hours; Orthodox churches keep Vespers, Matins, the Hours and Compline from the Horologion; Anglicans pray Morning and Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, first printed in 1549; Lutherans keep Matins and Vespers. Many evangelicals have taken it up through books such as Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine Hours.

Time

5 to 20 minutes, once to several times a day

Good for

People who want a rhythm, and days when you can’t find words of your own.

The Daily Office is prayer at set times, using set words, usually built around the Psalms and a reading from Scripture. It can sound like the opposite of heartfelt prayer. People who keep it tend to say the reverse: the fixed words carry you on days when you have no words of your own, and the fixed times mean prayer doesn’t depend on remembering.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

Psalm 141:2 (ESV)

You don’t have to pray seven times a day like a monastery. Morning and evening is the ancient core, and it is where nearly everyone starts. The free resources below give you the day’s psalms and readings in the form your tradition uses.

• Universalis. The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours for each day, free on the web.
• Divine Office. The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, with audio to pray along with.
• Daily Prayer. Morning, Evening and Night Prayer from the Church of England.
• The Mission of St. Clare. Morning and Evening Prayer from the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer.
• Prayers. Morning and evening prayers and more from the Orthodox Church in America.
• Pray as you go. A short daily audio prayer from the Jesuits in Britain, with music, Scripture and questions.

Printable cardThe Daily Office“Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.” Psalm 55:17, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

6. The Jesus Prayer

Where it comes from

Its words echo the tax collector (Luke 18:13) and the blind man at Jericho (Luke 18:38). The desert monks of Egypt prayed short phrases over and over. The prayer is taught in the Philokalia, a collection of Orthodox spiritual writings published in 1782, and an anonymous nineteenth-century Russian book, The Way of a Pilgrim, made it known far outside monasteries.

Who keeps it

Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians above all. Many Western Christians now pray it too.

Time

A few minutes, or through the day

Good for

Anxious minds, walks and commutes, and learning to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” That is the whole prayer. It joins the confession of who Jesus is with the oldest Christian request, for mercy, and it is short enough to say with each breath.

It comes from the Christian East, and Orthodox Christians often pray it with a prayer rope, a cord of knotted wool. The aim is not to empty the mind or to repeat a formula until something happens. It is to keep turning toward Christ, gently and many times a day, until praying starts to feel less like an appointment and more like company. The repetition is the opposite of the “empty phrases” Jesus warned against in Matthew 6:7, which were piled up to impress or to wear God down. This prayer asks for one thing, mercy, and keeps asking.

Printable cardThe Jesus Prayer“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Luke 18:13, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

7. The Examen

Where it comes from

Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), founder of the Jesuits, made a daily examination of the day central to his Spiritual Exercises. Its roots are in prayers like “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” (Psalm 139:23).

Who keeps it

Jesuits and Catholics first, and now widely used by Protestants and others.

Time

10 to 15 minutes, usually at night

Good for

Noticing God in ordinary days, and ending a day honestly.

The examen is a short review of the day, done with God. It is not a guilt inventory. Ignatius began it with thanksgiving, and the order matters: you look first for the gifts of the day, which are usually more than you noticed at the time. Then you look honestly at where things went wrong, ask forgiveness, and ask for help with tomorrow.

Many people find that after a few weeks the examen changes the day as well as the evening, because they start noticing God while things are happening.

Printable cardThe Examen“Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

8. Intercession: praying for others

Where it comes from

Praying for others runs through the whole Bible: Abraham pleading for Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33), Moses for Israel (Exodus 32:11-14), Jesus for his followers (John 17) and for Peter (Luke 22:32), and Paul for every church he wrote to. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 asks for prayer “for all people,” rulers included.

Who keeps it

Every tradition: the prayers of the people in Western services, the litanies of Orthodox worship with their repeated “Lord, have mercy,” and the prayer meetings of free churches.

Time

5 minutes or more

Good for

Turning worry for someone into prayer for them.

Intercession is asking God on someone else’s behalf. It is one of the plainest commands in the New Testament and one of the hardest to keep up, because lists grow and attention wanders. The answer most people find is to make the list short, spread it over the week, and use simple words.

Praying for someone also changes how you treat them. Jesus ties the two together when he says to pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44).

Printable cardIntercession“I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men” 1 Timothy 2:1, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

9. When prayer is hard

Where it comes from

Scripture keeps the prayers of people who couldn’t pray well: dozens of laments in the Psalms, Psalm 88 ending in darkness, a father crying “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24), and Jesus in Gethsemane. Paul says that when “we do not know what to pray for as we ought,” the Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26).

Who keeps it

Every tradition, often in its shortest prayers: “Lord, have mercy” (Kyrie eleison) is said in Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran worship and in many other churches.

Time

One minute is enough

Good for

Doubt, grief, depression, exhaustion, or a long dry spell.

Every serious book on prayer has a chapter like this, because every praying person goes through it. Sometimes prayer feels like talking to the ceiling. Sometimes grief or depression takes the words away. Sometimes it is simply exhaustion.

Scripture doesn’t treat those times as failure. It keeps the prayers of people in them.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8:26 (ESV)

The English Benedictine John Chapman (1865-1933) put the practical advice into a sentence in one of his letters: “Pray as you can, and do not try to pray as you can’t.” On a hard day that might mean one psalm read aloud, or “Lord, have mercy” said ten times on the way to work, or sitting in a church while others pray. It counts.

Printable cardWhen Prayer Is Hard“In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession…” Romans 8:26, WEBPDF · four cards to a page · free to copy

Posture and place

People in the Bible pray standing (Mark 11:25), kneeling (Daniel 6:10; Acts 20:36), lying face down (Matthew 26:39), with hands lifted (1 Timothy 2:8) and with heads bowed. Churches still differ: Orthodox Christians traditionally stand for prayer and make prostrations in Lent; Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans often kneel and make the sign of the cross; many free churches sit, or lift their hands in worship. No posture is required, and your body is not irrelevant either. If your mind wanders, try changing how you sit or stand.

A place helps too. Jesus speaks of going into your room and shutting the door (Matthew 6:6). A chair you use only for prayer, a candle, a cross or an icon on the wall, a walk you take at the same time each day: none of these is magic, and all of them make it easier to begin.

Where the traditions pray differently

The patterns above are shared ground. These practices are not, and it is better to name them honestly than to pretend otherwise. Weekday Grace doesn’t settle these questions.

• Asking the saints to pray for us. Catholic and Orthodox Christians, and some Anglicans and Lutherans, ask Mary and the saints to pray for them, as they would ask a friend on earth. Most Protestants pray to God alone and don’t make such requests. Both appeal to Scripture and to the communion of saints.
• Prayer for those who have died. Catholic, Orthodox and many Anglican Christians pray for the departed. Most Protestant churches don’t, holding that the dead are in God’s hands and beyond our prayers.
• Written and spontaneous prayer. Liturgical churches pray mostly in set words; free churches pray mostly in their own. Scripture has both: the Psalms are written prayers, and Nehemiah’s prayer before the king was not.
• Prayer beads and ropes. Catholics pray the rosary, which joins the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary with meditation on events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Orthodox Christians use the prayer rope for the Jesus Prayer, and some Anglicans use prayer beads. Many Protestants use none.
• Praying in tongues. Pentecostal and charismatic Christians pray in tongues, following Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 12-14. Other churches teach that the gift ceased with the apostles, or that it continues but is rare.

A seven-day start

If you’d like to try the patterns before choosing one, here is a week. Each day takes about ten to fifteen minutes. At the end, keep the one or two that helped.

Free printables

Every pattern has its own card, printed four to a page so you can cut them apart and hand them out. The full deck has all nine, plus the seven-day plan and a card of short prayers. The handout puts all nine patterns on one page, with discussion questions for a class on the back. All the Scripture on the printables is from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain, and all of them are released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Single cards, four to a page: The Lord’s Prayer · Praying the Psalms · ACTS · Lectio Divina · The Daily Office · The Jesus Prayer · The Examen · Intercession · When Prayer Is Hard.

No ads, no sign-up, no email wall. Print as many as you need for a church, school, small group or home. Credit “Weekday Grace, weekdaygrace.com” if you adapt them.

Using this guide in a class or small group

The guide is written so a religious education teacher, a youth leader or a small-group host can use it as it stands.

• One pattern a week. Over nine weeks, introduce one pattern, pray it together for five minutes, and hand out its card. Ask at the start of the next session what people noticed.
• Compare the versions. Print Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4 side by side and ask students to list the differences, then read the section on the differences you will hear in church.
• Visit, or invite. Ask a Catholic, an Orthodox and a Protestant guest how they pray on an ordinary weekday. The section on where traditions differ gives students fair language for the conversation.
• Write a psalm. After reading Psalm 13 and Psalm 100, students write a short prayer of lament or praise in the same shape.
• Discussion questions. Which pattern did you find easiest, and which hardest? Why might Christians value both set prayers and their own words? What does the Lord’s Prayer put first, and why might that matter?

For educators and librarians

Further reading

• The Examen. Ignatian Spirituality (Loyola Press), with several versions of the prayer.
• Orthodox prayers. The Orthodox Church in America.
• Daily Prayer. The Church of England.
• Universalis. The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours.