God doesn’t seem to answer my prayers – am I doing something wrong? How can I pray better?

Probably not! Maybe God is answering your prayers in ways that you don’t expect or realise. We believe that God always hears our prayers and reacts but not always as we request or expect!

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Is your prayer honest and loving? The only types of ‘wrong prayer’ are ones which are untruthful (e.g. if you were praying for something you didn’t want) or unloving (e.g. if you were praying for someone to be harmed). If you were praying like that, God probably wouldn’t do what you ask because God is all-loving and all-knowing.

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Prayer is just communicating honestly with God, so there are many ways to pray. Some like using set prayers i.e. the Our Father or a prayer cycle like the Rosary. Others prefer their own words. Prayer can mean asking God for what we need, praising God, praying for others, admitting when we’ve done wrong, asking forgiveness, or giving thanks to God.

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Prayer can involve just spending time with God in quiet or in conversation maybe using something to stimulate that: art, music, nature, song, film, poetry, etc. Some people like to pray in a certain place (a church, park, bench, in the shower, on the train etc), but you can pray anywhere and at any time.

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Many parishes have a prayer group such as a Rosary group, and so look at the websites, notices or newsletters of local Catholic churches to find out more.

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Most importantly, however you choose to pray, remember that God will help you – God already knows what you will pray about, and wants to spend time with you.