Our Catholic Prayers

Editor's Note: A special thanks to Chris Castagnoli of www.ourcatholicprayers.com for sharing the following guest post on his website. If you're seeking a centralized resource for prayers, you'll definitely want to check out www.ourcatholicprayers.com.  Lisa

The Our Catholic Prayers website www.ourcatholicprayers.com was established to help bring people closer to our Lord and to each other through prayer. Its founder, Christopher Castagnoli, a catechist and volunteer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, has designed it to be appealing especially to those who might feel intimidated by prayer, or who otherwise feel that they need some special quality of holiness in order to have a good prayer life. Nothing could be further from the truth, as he points out on the site.

While we can, and often do, indeed advance in holiness through prayer, we don’t have to start out as saints! God is more than happy to help us with our spiritual lives, even when we just start out by saying the "Our Father", "Hail Mary" and "Glory Be" once a day, or praying the name of Jesus in difficult situations.

The site’s approach to prayer is meant to be friendly without being frivolous. It brings to mind the advertising slogan from Home Depot: "You can do it. We can help."  Prayer is not just for monks, mystics, or saintly ladies in mantillas, after all!

As we say on the site’s home page: "God Is Calling! Are you listening?" To help people answer Him and to be more attuned to receiving His grace, our site includes many traditional favorite prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer and the Rosary, prayers to Saints, as well as others for different needs, and some lesser-known gems such as the "Magnificat".

We provide short commentaries on each prayer, including helpful information on their spiritual significance, for inspiration and reflection. (We currently feature over 125 pages of articles, with more on the way.)

The Our Catholic Prayers site also provides useful information from other websites and posts prayer requests from all over the world. We also answer e-mail inquiries from our readers about religious matters. Since we started the site four years ago, we’ve received a gratifying and growing response from readers in the United States, Canada, and over 80 countries around the world.

Hopefully, we’re doing our part to spread our Lord’s Good News. One reader, a Catholic convert from Hinduism gave us some encouragement with these words: "I am always looking for more guidance and information to improve my prayer life. Your site really helps." You can reach us from the "Contact Us" form on the site or at info@ourcatholicprayers.com.

Visit www.ourcatholicprayers.com for additional information.