Six Dimensions of Christian Prayer

I talk a lot about silent prayer in my blog, which is understandable considering that my focus is on contemplative prayer, which the Catholic Catechism describes as “wordless prayer.” As important as silence is to contemplative and mystical forms of prayer, it’s only one of five essential dimensions of Christian prayer. In this post I look at all of these dimensions of prayer: what they are, why they matter, and how to cultivate all the essential ways of praying in your daily spiritual practice.

I recently started reading a delightful book by Alexander Ryrie, called Silent Waiting: The Biblical Roots of Contemplative Spirituality. I have a feeling it will show up in this blog again and again. For today, I want to reflect on an interesting quotation found in the book’s introduction. This was written by Christopher Bryan and first appears in a wonderful book from Oxford University Press, The Study of Spirituality:

Here it will be enough to say that prayer may be divided into expressive and contemplative prayer. In expressive prayer individuals voice their faith and desires either in their own words or in those of the liturgy or in prayers composed by others. The four main types of expressive prayer are adoration, confession, thanksgiving and petition. Contemplative prayer is a prayer in which the individual waits in an open and receptive attitude, looking to the Lord. It has been called a prayer of loving attention to God.

I had never run into this phrase “expressive prayer” before, and I love it. It’s…